I’m very happy to welcome a new year! While some good things did happen in 2009–Patrick’s engagement to Veronica, visits with family in Seattle and Ohio, inauguration of Barack Obama, Lakers NBA championship and my adoption of two new cats (welcome Nate and Hayes!)–many bad things happened as well–loss of three of my pets (goodbye Puto, Murphy and Loki), depressed economy, deaths of many notables (too many to mention), as well as our nation still be involved in ongoing wars in two countries. Overall, I’m happy to welcome a new year filled with hope for better things to come.

The mood at our New Year’s Eve party last night seemed fairly unanimous that all were looking forward to a new year and the start of a new decade. I think most of that sentiment came as a result of all the deaths in 2009 of prominent people. I don’t know why there seemed to be so many deaths this year, including my loss of three pets. I think that is what did it for me. Life does go on, as we all know, and so we hope for a better day and year tomorrow.

Do need to mention that the party last night was also a celebration of Patrick’s 30th birthday! It’s hard to believe that both of my sons are now in their thirties. Somehow they still seemed like kids when in their twenties. Now they are both adults. Kinda sad, but also wonderful to see both of them mature into such fine men. Happy Birthday, Patrick!

And now I need to get busy cleaning up the mess from last night’s party and figuring out what to do with all these leftovers!