Well, it’s Christmas tomorrow, and then before we know it 2012 will be upon us. There are a bunch of things I would like to get done before then, but I just don’t think they are going to happen – too much fun to be had with the family to be stuck inside getting through my pile of work.

That said, I made my 20,000 word goal, and am feeling terribly excited about the novel. I will find ways to eke out a few words here and there so that I don’t lose this newly reformed daily writing habit, but I don’t imagine I’ll be getting time for more than a few hundred words a day.

I’d like to note that this is the most I have written on a new project in just over two years. It feels amazing to be powering ahead with a novel after so many months spent working in the short form. While I’ll always have a fondness for shorts, and I think that the learning I had from them has really improved my writing in general, I am finding a novel a very exciting thing to be working on.

It’s been a pretty good year all around. School went well for Ivy, I started going to Playcentre with Lauren and Natalie who are loving the stimulation. We’re all making new friends, which is fabulous. I’ve reclaimed some time for myself, both in regards to my writing and also by doing some study towards becoming a counselor. The rekindling of old dreams has been a real bonus this year, and not something I had foreseen. It’s a welcome change, and I feel really good about the way it’s subtly shifted things in our family.

I’ve learned that my husband is more than I had ever hoped for. Which isn’t to say that I had low expectations, but rather that I tend to think I should just handle everything in the world on my own and don’t ask for help as often as I could. This year he was straight with me about a few difficult things, in a tactful and kind way, and he has also been a huge enabler of me creating change in my life. I wonder if perhaps we’ve been together long enough now that he’s comfortable challenging my boundaries.

When I tried to back pedal out of doing the course this year, he was very firm about the fact that I WAS going to attend. None of my excuses made a dent in his wall of faith in me. Now, when I start to make noises about getting writing done, he often takes himself off, knowing how easily distracted I am. It is his quiet support that I appreciate. His faith in me (no matter how many extra things I decide to take on) that I can do whatever it is I’ve set out to do. That I will make the time for my passions, my work, and still be the best parent I know how, and the best wife. I don’t see how life could ever be bad with a man like this at my side. I had no expectations of who we would grow into as a couple, but wow, I am thrilled with the way our marriage is developing.

Our girls are growing too. Ivy is maturing in ways that I couldn’t have predicted, I’m so proud of her, and really delighted with the potential I see. I’m worrying less about the teen years now, because I think by then she’ll have worked through the kinks that other kids are usually just starting to address. She’s so vibrant and vivacious, she draws people to her everywhere she goes. She has such a lust for life, and I hope that’s something she gets to keep forever.

Lauren is a delight, as always. She’s blows me away with the way she looks at the world. The way she gives compliments for the sake of it. I don’t think I’ve ever had anyone in my life who so frequently tells me that I’m beautiful, or that they think I have pretty eyes/hair/clothes/whatever else, that they love me and think I’m wonderful. That level of love and kindness used to be so hard for me to accept, but hearing it from her has made it easier to accept compliments in general.

And Natalie… Well. The baby of the family, that hasn’t been a baby for almost as long as I can remember. Can you believe she is one and a half already?? She never ceases to make me smile. She is just so cheeky, so adorable that it’s hard to be grumpy, even when she’s peeing on the floor or trashing whatever she has come across in her explorations of the house. She is a thrill seeker, and an adventurer, through and through – definitely one that I need to keep an eye on

So we’re ending the year like this. Happy, content, excited, growing, maturing, exploring and enjoying the bounty that we have. Because we are blessed.

You probably won’t hear from me until 2012, but I want to say Merry Christmas, and have an awesome New Years Eve. Celebrate everything that happened this year and welcome in the new one with gusto, because it’s going to be amazing. I hope I’ll see you back here in January. Stay safe, and enjoy!