Friday 9 January 2015

The Culmination of a Year - Waving Goodbye to 2014!

With the holidays behind us, we are just over a week into the new year.  The snow has begun to fall in buckets it would seem, and turning everything into a winter wonderland.  Is it bad that I've already had enough of winter? 

To say that 2014 was a busy year is a serious understatement.  As with most, it was packed with a variety of challenges and triumphs.  The beauty of hindsight is that you can often look past the shadows in that rear-view mirror, and clearly focus on the highlights and this year, we were lucky to have more than a few.

The year kicked off with my celebration of 6 years post gastric-bypass.  This in itself wouldn't sound like such a huge deal, except for the fact that had I not had the surgery, doctor's predicted I wouldn't live 5 more years.  The surgery turned into an ordeal that saw me in hospital for the whole of 2008, but in the end I got to come home. 

For a time things seemed pretty uncertain, and I'd come home pretty incapacitated, but I fought my way back onto my feet.  I've become pretty fond of saying that stubborn isn't always a bad thing, with a big grin of course!  I take somewhat of a deeper pleasure now in all of the things I wouldn't have gotten to enjoy had I not taken that leap. 

In 2014…

We celebrated 17 years as a family, welcomed our first grandson just in time for Easter dinner, making him among the first in our family to show up early for anything!  Not long after our youngest daughter turned 20, signalling the end of an era - the last teenager graduating to adulthood.

Brayden William James Sanderson made his arrival on April 20th, 2014 effectively upgrading himself from jelly bean, to easter egg!  This is one of the very first photos we were able to take of him while he was still in the incubator. 

Time sure flies when you're hanging out with a good friend. <3 
Somewhere in there I turned 45, and I find myself musing at just when I blinked and jumped from 25 to 45 ~ so much has happened in that time frame, so much packed into each and every chapter. Some flowing together, and others seemingly having nothing to do with one another; quite an eclectic mix. 

My hubby and I were both active with a variety of community pursuits, enjoyed a variety of hobbies, and professional pursuits and took on a few new challenges.  

We made some serious headway on our house recuperation after dual repairs/renovations, and the clutter collected during many years of med issues, both in and out of our house.  It's finally feeling like we're getting somewhere and I couldn't be happier about that! 
A surprise birthday visit from her brand new nephew for her birthday ~ Happy Birthday Auntie Caelly! 
We ended the year with a holiday filled with family and friends, and a surprise visit from friends who were home for the holidays.  We were blessed to have all of our kids home for Christmas and a few extra days to visit with the kids who live further away from home.

We all have a lot to deal with in life - but if you take the time to look for it you might just notice how truly blessed we all are.  This world would be a far happier place if we all made a point of looking for those smiles and happiness, instead of focussing on the sadness and tears. 

This life is short ~ make the most of it!


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