It's Time to Celebrate!

Merry Christmas, to those of us who celebrate, and Happy Wednesday to those of us who do not!

It is time to start one of my end-of-the year traditions - recaps and reveals for the next year.

Today, let's recap this year a bit.

I'm not going to sugarcoat it - 2025 was a rough year for me. The major headline is that my doctors found and then cut out my first bout with colon cancer. I am hoping that preventative colonoscopies will keep me from having to lose any more of my bowel (I've already had over 2 feet of large intestine surgically removed), but we will see. My grandmother died of complications with colon cancer and a work acquaintance of mine also recently passed away from the same thing, so this has been on my mind this year.

I did not go on any trips this year. This is unusual since we (my Mom, my Sister, and I) are starting to take summer trips as a unit. Instead, due to the aforementioned cancer, my Sister, Mom, and Aunt came to my house to help me through my first colonoscopy of the year, and then Mom returned to help me after my surgery. I forgot how much I love to travel until I didn't get to.

I am currently in the middle of a trip - back to my Mom's house, and I have enjoyed every little bit of it so far! The screaming babies on the late night flight, the long waits at the airport for my connections, the small seats in the plane. So far, my family has made sure that I have had fast food from our favorite restaurants, so that's good. Today, we cook! In fact, I'll be doing downstairs to start our dinner preparation soon so we can bake cookies later this morning. 

This year, I finally took some steps towards making a living from my own efforts and not as the employee of someone else. I am ending this year in a strong position as I look towards my future. Of course, all of these steps have happened in the last three months. During quarter 4, I was strong on this quest!

It is time to establish my quests for the upcoming year. At this point, I know I have to do some more medical testing (thanks, Cancer, for never truly leaving! [sarcasm]), but I want to give my business a big boost, so I have many things to arrange for that quest of mine! I have come to the end of my latest planner journal, so I will be starting up a new one pretty soon. I have established some quests there already. I will have more as I get going into new situations and new ideas and new things in general. 

Hooray for finishing this year. In the next two weeks, I have two five-year grief anniversaries - my cat died five years ago today and Dad followed her two weeks later - so, I am trying my best to focus on the celebrations of their lives rather than the grief that I still feel over the loss of them. For now, though, I am getting ready to take my shower and then help Mom cook up some really good food.

Merry Christmas, and to all, a good night!!



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