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Three and a half hours to 2020 Mountain Standard Time

I may not still be awake at midnight, to see the New Year in. 

Sometimes I am, sometimes I'm not. 

Thinking about all my New Year's Eves, I remember an exciting one at My Father's Mustache in Montreal when I was 20, when I was in love and happy and everyone seemed to be the same. 

A few very tearful ones later as my then-boyfriend and I tried to figure out our future. That was a long, slow, painful breakup. 

A solitary New Year's Eve in Capetown, South Africa where someone tried to break into the house. A man died that night.

A New Year's Eve spent flying across the Atlantic, back to England from a holiday with my sister and her family. Landing at Heathrow to the aftermath of a huge snowstorm.

Laurie's first New Year's Eve, 1979 into 1980, where my English hosts took me along "first footing" to a neighbor's house.  

Our last all-family holiday with my dad, stepmom, sister and her family in Kauai with a New Year's Eve luau. My sister was diagnosed with terminal cancer later that year.

Driving from Virginia to the state of Washington in one day December 31, 1998, alone in my Toyota Tercel with only Dr. Laura as company. Hearing each New Year being rung in on my A.M. car radio from London England and across the U.S. Arriving at our new home in Richland Washington shortly after midnight.

Years pass, no New Year's Eve really stand out.

2016 into 2017, trying to keep warm in our cold rental in Ireland, watching old movies and wondering if I'd done the right thing. We would return to the U.S. before another New Year's Eve but I don't regret those ten months.

I don't remember the New Year from 2017 to 2018 or 2018 to 2019 so I am making a resolution (hah!) to record tonight for posterity.

Not that we are doing anything earth shattering. Watched the movie "Hidden Figures," worked on some Irish genealogy, and am about to continue reading "The Silent Patient." I managed to read 52 books in 2019, something I am quite proud of. I plan to read at least as many this year. And continue with my French classes twice a month. Participate in book clubs. Attend gentle Zumba more often. Substitute teach, but not a lot.

Miracle of miracles, we are still living in the same house we were in on December 31, 2018. For people who move as much as we do, that's an accomplishment. And no "For Sale" sign on the lawn either. No plans to move, at least not on my part.

We traveled this year, something that I have blogged about. Roundtrip on the Queen Mary in April-May, a visit to England, France and Spain. Then in October to Paris with Laurie and Mercy and to Ireland with Sheila. I plan on traveling to Ireland in March of 2020, to see newly found relatives and to spend time with my cousin Kathleen. May travel elsewhere too, depending on whether what's wrong with our furnace in the guest room is expensive to fix.

My health was wonky at the beginning of 2019. A urologist gave me a diagnosis that ultimately really didn't prove helpful--the problem cleared up on its own. But, more worrying, in March I had something called Transient Global Amnesia and lost a day out of my life. It supposedly only happens once--rarely, twice--in a person's life but it was scary. And I think my daughter still wonders about my memory at times. Mainly because I deliberately let her take the lead on our Paris vacation. I wanted her to feel in control, to feel the excitement of traveling.

Richard's brother Alan and his partner Ginny came to visit us for Thanksgiving and we managed to squeeze the whole family in for a festive meal. A couple of weeks later, Richard and I snuck in a weekend in Santa Fe, walking around Canyon Road, having lunch with friends Emil and Sharon and going to our former church ward. Richard came home with a cold which he then shared with me. So I am ending December having just got past it. I still have a yucky cold sore and a cough but I was only really sick for a day. And I am grateful for that. Next year I will focus more on my health. 

I think that's enough to record for posterity.

Some of my favorite photos from 2019. Wish they uploaded in date order but they don't. Still at least they are all from 2019:



















 








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