Goodbye to 2024

Well, we made it. Another year is getting ready to end, and if we are lucky, all of us will wake up tomorrow morning in the next one. But we survived all of the good days, bad days, accomplishments, and disappointments, so congratulations.

Even when a year has been crushing, I try to remember the good things, no matter how small, because I think every year deserves that. 

In 2024, everyone in our house woke up every single day. We were able to live our lives, no matter how boring or mundane it may have seemed - to us and to those looking in from the outside. 

 We laughed when things were funny (OK, and often when they shouldn't have been). We were able to take some small trips, and we got together with family members and laughed ourselves silly. We rejoiced when Kamala Harris was nominated to be the next President, and we commiserated when she didn't win.

We spent time watching the birds and squirrels in the garden be silly, and bird-y and squirrel-y, petting every dog possible (OK, most of the time that was me), saying hello to every cat in the window when we walked by (OK again mostly me). 

We drove each other nuts, and annoyed the heck of out each other. ("Koodle, stop peeing everywhere!''), and at least where the cats are concerned, we had the scratch and bite marks to prove it. We hurt each other inadvertently, and tried to be more considerate after. 

We fixed up some things in our house, and as a result also spent a lot of the money we had saved. We gave Alfie many chances to prove his worth as both a work foreman (forecat?) and snoopervisor. We made the others hide a lot of the time as a result of these fixes, since strangers were coming in, doing noisy and terrible things, and likely would have killed them if they could have. (Certainty there on their parts, not ours.) We got two new trees, which will hopefully thrive and long outlive all of us.

We complained, we snarked, we rejoiced, we cried. We kept our mouths shut, except when we didn't.

We stayed together as our little family unit, always happy that we could do that, and we hope that will continue as long as possible. Because of course nothing is certain.

Basically, it was a year like most. But as time goes on, it becomes more treasured. Being able to live a quiet, happy, safe life, all of us together, makes every year a good one.

Here's hoping that 2025 grants us all of that, at a minimum.

Enjoy. Celebrate. Live. Enjoy.

Lather. Rinse. Repeat. 😉

Happy New Year from me, The Tim, Pip, Milo, Alfie, and Esme! All of us sincerely wish the best for you and yours.