Welcome 2010, Won't You Come In?

We celebrated a lot of Christmases this year. Four different get-togethers with family, to be exact. And one more tomorrow night as my Mum introduces a bunch of her friends to a traditional Ukrainian Christmas Eve meal.

Christmas was quiet this year though. Not once was either of our entire families together, except at the beginning of December when we all trooped down to Lethbridge to celebrate with Hubs' brother and his family.

I worked throughout December, taking a whole 3 days off during the holiday season. I like being at the office when there's less than 25% of the staff there. It's quiet, but there's a cameraderie among those present. We share Christmas treats, go for coffee with people from the other side of the floor (oh, wait, that's every day).

And we even brought the New Year in quietly, at the family cabin in the mountains. Just us two, watching a movie (that now we can't even remember which one, how memorable is that?), boys asleep in their bed.

And now I'm ready for 2010 to come into full swing. There are projects I want to work on, things I want to do around the house, books to read, food to try, photos to take. (It was Varsity Blues, Hubs just remembered.)

I'm normally not a person to get very excited about the New Year. "Just another day," says I. But this year is different. This year I am excited. Excited for the possibilities, the learning, the decluttering, the time spent with close friends and family. Hubs and I are planning a big trip this summer to celebrate our anniversary, but there's more and more about my home city that I want to learn too.

I'm looking forward to my boys growing another year. Both of them will be going to school this fall, the youngest is learning new words daily, he's a regular parrot. And the oldest is so interested in everything. The solar system, the continents, colouring and drawing, dancing, languages. He's a human sponge.

I've spent the last couple of months at work learning a new software (really, trying to break it) and the last few weeks leading a group of people towards our project's first deadline, tomorrow afternoon. It's been such an experience, and I haven't had to e-mail our boss on his Blackberry as he lounges on a Hawaiian beach nearly as much as I thought I would have to. I've learned a lot about what motivates our team, what they respond to, their strengths and weaknesses. I've made some mistakes, and spent the better part of a day fixing them. And when our boss returns from his tropical vacay, I will be ready for a couple of days break myself.

2010 is starting out a great year (I know, we're only 5 days in), and I think my resolution (if I made one) would probably be to appoach the coming months with a sense of optimism and wonder. I plan on exploring and learning a lot this year.