Idea stolen from @blankenship.
In no particular order, the things I am thankful for this year:
my wife, my kid, my second kid, family, toggl, eating out, cookie monster diapers, muxtapes, station wagons, iChat, Pei Wei, WordPress, friends, Adobe, Twitter, the enjoyment on Cohen’s face when reading books, presentation inspiration, Gotham Bold, our yellow house with a (now) solid foundation, ESPN, abc’s spoken by two-year olds, Banana Republic, QuadCamera, clients, Monday & Wednesday afternoons, Canadian dotcomrades (and a few American ones too), Woopra, the American version of The Office, skype, Helvetica, iTunes, YouVersion, A Fashionable Thursdays, Jesus, the sound my kid makes when eating an apple, Apple, El Taco H, Art Direction plugin, the Internet, Sunday afternoon naps, NYC, decent cooking skills, flickr, Woody & Buzz, J. Crew, our Church, McDonald’s, taking laps around the mall with the family, Netflix, The Sartorialist, Akismet, quality ties, Vimeo, Chipotle, slab-serifs, Tumblr, iPhones, ?ºber–talented web designers, the means to fix our house, Instapaper, Chick-Fil-A, Mad Men, GAP, 960gs, Clarendon, grillmaster abilities, Google, TiltShift Generator, Nicaragua, RSS, health, insurance, music, working from home, the library, Frank Sinatra, service men/women, rarely having to do the dishes, being able to do the dishes sometimes so I feel like I am being helpful, Starbucks, Tweetie, MAMP, Delicious, freedom, moderate amounts of Christmas music, FireFox, fried turkeys, and of course, you.
After a whirlwind tour in six days of west Texas and eastern New Mexico, we are finally home. We had a great time visiting with those we got to see even if time was short in most cases. We also missed out on seeing several and hope that our paths will cross soon.
Tomorrow will begin a mad dash over the next couple of days to get caught up for lost time with projects and client work. Though I have only missed about three normal work days it feels like much more.
I hope to also mix in some 2009 goal setting/planning, cleaning of the house, ridding ourselves of some non-needed items through Craigslist/ebay/Goodwill, and fighting the crowds a time or two more to spend some of the very appreciated gifts we were blessed with.
The new year will surely bring challenges with a slower economy but we plan to press on and find new and exciting ways to accommodate our lifestyle that we have become accustomed too. Or, we’ll adjust.
I start the new year with hopes of good health for all those in my life, opportunities to be presented to make a difference in others’ lives, a renewed passion and desire to provide quality work/service to current or potential clients, a hope for business growth and possible expansion, and a daily reminder to be thankful for the most important things in life.
From a monetary standpoint, I pledge to have less debt at the end of the year than I do at the beginning. More than likely, there will still be red on my balance sheet but I plan to watch that number shrink each day.
I’d like to write more in 2009. Maybe here, maybe elsewhere. It would be nice to get to a point where I don’t feel bad for taking the time to write. Sometimes I don’t write because I feel there are more important things I should be doing. If that means getting paid for writing to alleviate some of those feelings then I should look into how one goes about that.
In 2009, I think I will attempt to read more. Smart people read. I will have to be judicious with my time so I don’t end up feeling like I should be doing other things, but it couldn’t hurt for me to pick up a book every once in a while. I might even read something that I could put to use one day.
I plan on getting ideas out of my head this year and into action. Whether it means building a bookshelf for my office, a self-sustaining website, a compost pile for fertilizing my non-existent garden or even putting up a studio office to free up space in our house; my mind needs space for new ideas so the old ones need to be accomplished or demolished.
2009 should be a good year. We’ve been promised change by those soon to be in charge and though I may not agree with their decisions on – what to or how to – change, I believe some change will take place. If not from them, maybe a little closer to home.
I hope you see opportunity in the new year. Your opportunity could be anything from strengthening your ability for service to seeing your own bank account grow. Whatever will benefit you so that you can benefit others, I hope for your cup to overflow.
Happy New Year to you and thank you for being a part of me.
