2019: A Bright New Year

As I write this, it is quite gloomy outside.  Very grey, very wet (heavy rains most of yesterday afternoon and overnight), and just a totally blah winter day. I would much rather see temperatures below freezing and white snowbanks than all this almost-40 degree grey and mud, mud, mud. 

Add that to coming out of a frantic holiday season in which we juggled lots of family gatherings (really, must we do the whole extended family thing on both sides--now encompassing four generations--every year?) as well as work schedules and a lingering cold (or is it newly developed pesky allergies and possibly asthma?) on my part, it's hard to feel energetic on this first day of the new year.

However, there is a lot to look forward to in 2019.


First, or might turn out to be second, DD2 will be graduating from college with her Bachelor's in Wildlife Ecology and Management (and a minor in International Spanish) in early May.  That's been on our radar for quite a while, and we all ready have room reservations and travel plans in regards to attending that.

Next, or perhaps slightly before that, our third grandchild will be arriving.  The due date is six days after DD2's graduation, but as this baby's siblings (K3 and Toad) both arrived over a week early, I'm thinking this one probably will too.  We know this new bundle of joy is going to be a boy.  Toad all ready has a name chosen for his baby brother, but their parents have a different one in mind, so won't be using Toad's idea. Given that Toad's choice--Rascal--sounds like an apt nickname for a little boy, I might just use it here.

The third big event, which will definitely arrive third since it is slated for mid-August, is DS2 and Surprise's wedding!  Plans are well underway for that, and it looks like we will be traveling to New Jersey (where Surprise's family is) for the joyful day.  DH and I are discussing taking a week after the wedding for a long talked about but yet untaken New England sight seeing vacation. Once we're as far east as New Jersey, how can we not head on up to Vermont, and possibly New Hampshire and/or Maine?


The year, of course, holds much more than that in store for me, and I think I'm up for discovering all the surprises, good and maybe not so good, of 2019.