The last post of 2011...

Well, Christmas came and it was good... There were many gifts under the tree and there wereno lumps of coal!

There were many other types of presents... First, Alex, Leah & Jan were safe and sound; biggest present! Second, I received a "Merry Christmas" text from each of my older daughters; that was a biggie! Third, we had house guests who are very dear to us: Leah's godparents - Spence & Marcia Price - came along with Mark Barnett an old friend whom we had not seen in 20 years; also Nancy Temperilli (Leah's confirmation Godmother), Mike Temperilli, her husband, and Jesse Temperilli, their son and my confirmation Godson! We had a great time catching up and also reminiscing; great time! The Temperillis left on the 26th, Nancy's birthday, and Spence/Marcia/Mark left on the 27th, early in the AM. We are back to normal...

On Christmas Day, we had an open house (we usually have in on Christmas Eve, but Leah and I were on the road then driving up from Gainesville; made it home right before Santa - 11:15 PM!) and many of our friends came, some with their children, and some even with their grandchildren. Mark Barnett is a professional photographer and he took some amazing pictures (https://plus.google.com/photos/115303719259856077033/albums/5691586494571974721?authkey=CNK04_bjjNPcRw).

We played a game of Dirty Santa and everybody went home with a present they either stole, hid (to keep it from being stolen), or could not have it stolen!

Many Thanks to all of you who made this one a special night!

Regarding the end of the year, the time comes now to start reflecting on the whole year, highlights, low-lights, what worked and what didn't, things to continue doing and things to stop, things to do more of and less of, and develop plans, goals and - of course - resolutions for 2012.

2012 will be a leap year so those poor people born on Feb 29 get to have another every-four-years birthday; it will also be an election year here in the USA in which we may get to hear how our leaders plan to attack very complex issues with the economic outlook for the Western World, lack of trust on the institutions (Congress, Government) and the system (Capitalism and the unprecedented power and immunity of Wall Street), and then we get to decide who we think can do the least damage, and elect him/her!

For my part, I hope you all have your happiest and best year yet, in all dimensions, in 2012.

See you on the other side...

Miguel.