Hello, faithful friends!  

    Once all the presents have been unwrapped, the turkeys packed tightly into your bellies, the cookie tray slowly picked away at, what are you left with?
  A New Year!
  That's right folks, did you forget about it?  Some people are all about the turn of the hour when midnight blends the old with the new.  There is something transformative in the idea of starting a new year.  It's the time for a fresh start, out with the old in with the new.
    Are you a resolution maker?  If you are this must be your favorite time of year! 
   So what qualifies as a resolution in your mind?  Do you  make unattainable goals all the while knowing you'll get another chance 365 days later?
   I'm not really one to make resolutions, or maybe it's better for me to say I try everyday to make small ones.  For example: be more generous with my time, try not to shout at my children in that awful voice that too often comes out, be more patient, run a little farther before I give up and walk..... Things like that are easy to bargain with yourself. 
   There is some things I love about this inbetween time of year, but here is the best one; the countdown charts, the best of the best from the last 365, (yes, I know, I love a list!)
   So here are a few of my "favorites" lists from this past year!

   I've known for a long long while that so many of my favourite things revolve around food, my fav day's are no different.  I've tried to use discretion, but who really cares, they're my favorites! 

Favorite days

1~ Strawberry picking- all those beautiful gems just waiting to share their juicy goodness
2~ The day I harvested my garden.  All those vegetables fed us for weeks
3~ Shopping dates with my Grandma!  It's always a fabulous day
4~ Every "hot summer day" we enjoyed eating outside on the patio, running through the 
      sprinkler, eating popcicles and freezies, playing baseball in the backyard, and enjoying 
      the sun.
5~ The day I woke up to my three boys shoveling pea-gravel to make way for my garden...
   I mean our garden!  
   

Top Songs
  By now you know how much I love music, so here are a few tunes that have been on constant loop this past year.  It's seriously hard to narrow it down, but I've done my best.  Here is what I love in all it's glorious randomness.

 1~ That Wasn't Me - Brandi Carlisle
 2~ Till Kingdom Come - Coldplay
 3~ Advice - Jesse Ruben
 4~ Can I Stay - Ray LaMontagne
 5~ Kiss Me- Ed Sheeran
 6~ The Sound of a Million Dreams - David Nail
 7~ Simple As This - Jake Bugg
 8~ Hands Are Clever - Alex Clare
 9~ I Found A Boy - ADELE
10~Not With Haste - Mumford & Sons ..... (This was a tough one to narrow down for me,
        I could have filled, in the least, 5 slots from this album alone, but for the sake of being 
        selective I chose one!)

   So there you have it.....some of my favorite things.  I encourage you to take a minute to reflect on your year, and maybe instead of putting all the focus on the things you resolve to change in the New Year, take a moment to say thanks for everything you were blessed with this past year!