With all the excitement about Christmas, there is no big day that sneaks up on me more each year than the last day of it. I woke up this morning to my 4 year old’s face pressed up to mine and he said in a very concerned and serious voice, “Mommy! Wake up! You have 4 eyes!!” And so began the last day of this year – a “year of dreams” we’ve called it around this house. A year that like all others was full of hard stuff, sad stuff, but lots of good stuff too. This year, my kids turned 4 and 7, I hit the big 33 and hubs is now on the downhill slide to 40. He doesn’t like when I say that.

As 2011 began, I set my sights on some long put off goals and now that the year is over, I’m happy to look back and say I completed them.

I signed up for and ran my first half marathon back in February while my hubby and kids stood in the cold for 2 hours to cheer for me for the 15 seconds it took me to go past them. I still get choked up thinking back to that moment of running past my daughter with her “Go Mommy” sign.

I also signed up for and finished my final class for my bachelor’s degree and am officially a University of Colorado at Boulder graduate. Woo!

My two big goals for the year complete. What next? Probably a full marathon, maybe more school.

Around the house, we painted the kitchen a new blue.

We turned our guest room into a playroom.

We did a quickie little makeover at our entryway.

And added a beadboard headboard in our bedroom that just celebrated it’s first birthday.

In the rest of our not picture perfect ready for it’s closeup just everyday living life:

I spent a month cooking all new to me meals.

We spent another glorious summer at the cottage.

Back in January of this year, I wrote this post about The me I want to be and the struggle I was having with blogging, sharing, writing, taking pretty pictures and the pressure that I felt from all of it. I think that this year brought big changes to this blog. I stepped back a lot more. I didn’t share just to share. I took time off when I needed it. I enjoyed the moments and began to really live what is in my heart more than just talking about it. I think it’s safe to say now that the year has passed that I really did become the me I wanted to be this time last year. What a wonderful thing for anyone.

I thank you all for being here over the past year or years. I appreciate all of you and wish you all the best in the coming year.

Happy New Year!!