Dear 2017,

I did not honour you earlier this year as it should have happened but it is even more fun trying to dig up my memory as 2018 approaches the end. Here are some of your:

Travel highlights:

• A memorable trip back home to Romania.
• A trip to Catskills with family.
• Trips to New Jersey to welcome new family member.
• Prince Edward County and Haliburton.
• Bruce Peninsula with international adventurers.
• Montreal and Quebec City with my sweet friend Dani.
• Trip to Nashville and Memphis, turned into a bust but yet a bit of a highlight when visiting Graceland.
• Quick day trip to Buffalo

Personal highlights:

• Family started growing in 2017. The growth completed in 2018 but by August we started to calculate things in base 3.
• Sharing the news with family and friends that we were are adding a new member.
• Completing an adoption course.
• Spending as much time as we could with friends and family. Felt even luckier with the great visits from abroad: Japan, Germany, UK.
• Fulfilling our auntie and uncle duties with aplomb, if not that, then definitely with gusto. (Copied from 2016 still accurate and we even had our first sleep over at our place. Homemade mac and cheese almost sent the kids back home but we powered through)
• Continued beading with the best group of girls I could wish for.
• Stuart, our Norfolk Pine Tree is still growing beautifully and and so is Ernie (Copied from 2016 – still true although Stuart had a bit of a rough patch this year but he recovered)
• My work in software development went full steam ahead and it was a very work full year. Completed a major project in May which I was very proud of.
• Started a kitchen renovation which took a bit longer than expected but turned out well.
• Chris was a spectacular Santa.
• Making a bag for my niece Aggie with Gail.

Toronto highlights:

• Walks.
• Family and friends’ visits from overseas get us outside of our city comfort zones. (Copied from 2016 still true)
• Canadian Opera Company and Toronto Symphony Orchestra subscriptions had us going to some beautiful performances.
• Concerts: Sleaford Mods and Nick Cave – both excellent.

2017 was very much a full year with lots of work quite similar to 2016 especially in the first half of the year but by the second part of the year personal growth took centre stage.Travelling wise it was a strange year.  Looking back now our trip to Romania was such a blessing which I will detail in its own post. We were supposed to go to Australia too but we had to cancel as I could not travel such a length of time while pregnant. Nashville and Memphis were also a rollercoaster which will put in a post as it is worth remembering later on. So while travels were a mixed bag of emotions, it was a spectacular year in terms of sharing good news.  The kitchen renovation was an adventure of its own but we can’t imagine our place any different now. Similarly to 2016 I fell short in taking care of my hobbies, but I spent a lot of time focusing on health improvements also some of the artistic dimension was filled with the beading creations. An extremely rewarding occupation.

Thank you 2017, you were definititely one of the most memorable ones yet.