New Year's Eve Reflections

It's hard to believe that the year is at an end! So much has happened this year, more bad than good, and I'm looking towards the New Year as a rebirth and a fresh start.

The best thing I can think of that happened this year was my sister's foster parenting. She and her family welcomed two little girls, Haylee and Sheila, into her home in March. They have been a source of joy and happiness for me, and I have enjoyed being and aunt to them, as well as to my 16 year old niece Briana, who is as sassy as ever. Bri is in her second year with us, although we've known her since she was born.

However, the rest of the year has been nothing but losing family. This is the downside to being part of a large, extended family. My cousin died in March. An aunt (mom's sister) died in May. Another aunt (mom's side again), one I was very close to, passed suddenly in July. And then an uncle (mom's side yet again) in September. Finally, another uncle (dad's side this time) in November. It was a very eerie pattern that began in March and skipped every other month until the end of the year. This is why I'm looking forward to 2008. I hope it will break the seeming cycle of death that has plagued my family this whole year.

I have some creative plans for the new year. I have a couple of picture books planned (okay, they're in the hypothetical stages right now, but whatever). I made a collage quilt for my sister for Christmas, and now some of her friends want them too! So I'll probably be busy with that as well. I am also going to be doing a lot of drawing and painting, because I hope to be featured at Spoleto 2009. (Spoleto is Charleston's annual art festival; I would have tried for this year but I would like to get some practice and build up my art portfolio before then, and give myself some time to really get creative). I also plan on building up my photography portfolio; I got some excellent shots of my nieces in preparation for my sister's collage quilt, so several of those will be going in as well as some new shots.

As for New Year's Resolutions, I'm doing what everyone else is doing, resolving to lose weight! I've already started, by eating healthy and starting to exercise again, and I began taking Alli yesterday. I'm really going to fight it off this year. You see, that favorite aunt of mine, she died from a heart attack. I want to be around a very long time for my nieces and, someday, my own kids.

Christmas was an especially hard time for me this year, because when I was really little, my family used to spend Christmas up at my aunt's house. I have a ton of memories from those days. Not just Christmas, but any time I was with her. But Christmas was especially hard. I miss her so much. . .

So you can see why I say that I hope to make 2008 a rebirth, a fresh start. I'm starting this new year with specific goals and specific memories. I hope that your New Year is a good one, void of loss and heartache, and filled with happiness and good things. Happy New Year, Everyone.