New Year

Usually I get at least a little reflective over Christmas break. I might make a resolution or two (run a marathon, read 50 books, cook a new recipe every week), and write a nice journal entry about the past year and my hopes for the next year.

This year, though, I wasn't all that reflective over the break. It kind of didn't occur to me to be reflective. In fact, this whole past year has been a bit of a grand fail in my typical self-reflective pursuits, like blogging (for which I averaged less than once a month), and journal-writing (only slightly better).

So now that January 1 has passed, and while I still have some time on my hands, I thought I might as well do an end-of-the-year quickie, one that may get the ball rolling on my blog again, or may stand in for the next month (or two or three) of absenteeism.

Of all the life-changing years I've had (and I've had quite a few), this year has probably definitely been the life-changingest. When I woke up on the morning of New Year's Day 2012, I had no concrete reason to believe that I would wake up the morning of New Year's Day 2013 seven months married and four months pregnant. In retrospect, a lot was already in place at that moment. But I didn't see it until it suddenly happened, and then it did, and here I am. In fact, maybe one of the reasons I haven't been all that reflective this year is that a) I don't feel compelled to turn to my journal because I have a real live person to reflect to when I need to work through complicated or confusing feelings, and b) being married to my best friend is one of the awesomest things ever and I just feel very content and secure in my life.

So of course marriage and impending motherhood top the list for the year, but they're far from the only things on the list.

2012 is the year of...

• Getting married. See above.
• Becoming pregnant. You'll probably hear more from me on that.
• My first cruise and first trip to Florida.
• My second marathon, and personal record. 
• Not being a ward organist for the first time in seven years (that one's a little sad).
• Reading outside my comfort zone. In addition to novels and classics and book club books well within the bounds of what I normally read, I also tried out graphic novels for the first time ever, and Stephen King (I plowed all the way through two many-hundred page books), and even a little mystery (Gillian Flynn, Tanna French, more Gillian Flynn).
• Finding my footing as the department undergrad adviser. I didn't become the adviser this year, but I finished the year feeling much more confident and successful in the role.
• Cooking! I cooked a lot last year, but getting married made me feel like I could no longer get away with eating grilled turkey and cheese sandwiches every night, and having someone else to cook for gives me an excuse to keep trying out new recipes. It's been fun to watch Brian, previously a non-cook, get into the cooking spirit. He's been really adventurous, maybe even more so than me, and together I don't think we've repeated more than one or two recipes in the 7 months we've been married.
• Singing publicly. I am nowhere near the singer Brian is, but somehow I got up the courage to sing/play a duet of Mary's Lullaby with him when we were asked to provide music at the ward Relief Society Christmas dinner, and then on New Year's Eve we put together our musical Christmas card and I found my vocals plastered on our blogs and Facebook and YouTube. It was a little scary, but less scary than I might have expected.
• Playing aunt. My niece and nephew are both well over a year old right now, and have become even more fun to play with and watch grow up. In addition, I acquired 12 new nieces and nephews, and have had a chance to spend at least a little time with all of them.
• Teaching Primary. This was the first full year I spent in Primary, first with the 10- and 11-year-old girls in my last ward, and then co-teaching the 5-to-7-year-olds in my new ward with Brian. The two classes are very, very different from one another, and since teaching the 11-year-old girls was my favorite calling ever in the whole world, shifting ages was a bit of a challenge. But I've loved working with the younger kids, too, and learning how to make Primary meaningful for them.

Happy 2012! I'm looking forward to what 2013 will be.