I can’t believe 2011 is over… seriously… I can’t. Fastest. Year. Ever.
2011 was phenomenal. Insane. Exhilarating. Awesome. Joyful. Busy. Just all around generally incredible.
Probably my favorite year in my <27 years of existence.
Here’s just a few reasons why:
- Marriage – Best day of my life. We did it!! And it was wonderful!! Everything was perfect and beautiful, and everyone had a wonderful time. It couldn’t possibly have been much better. Not to mention our awesome honeymoon in Toronto (blog post coming soon, seriously)!!!!
- Israel – Best week of my life. Adam’s family, the sites, the history, the people, the FOOD!!! Such an amazing experience and SO thankful to have had it!
- Cooking – After returning from Israel and the week long experience of exquisite cuisine, I came back yearning for a healthier, more enjoyable lifestyle. And for me, that started with the abandonment of frozen bag dinners and the purchase of several great cookbooks (which eventually lead to Cuisine Week)!
- Genealogy – In between wedding planning and traveling, I was able to break through a few brick walls, connect with some distant cousins, and I even managed to win the GRAND freaking PRIZE in the Ancestry.com 15 Days of Discovery sweepstakes!! The trip to LA is in just a few weeks!!
- RootsTech – And going along with the genealogy stuff, I had the opportunity to attend the first ever RootsTech conference in February which was an awesome mashup of genealogy and technology. I’m already all booked for the second conference in Feb. 2012!
- CodeMash & An Event Apart (San Francisco) – My first two real web / developer conferences – all thanks to my new(ish) work home – Quicken Loans! These were a lot of fun, a lot to take in, and certainly reinvigorated my profession.
So much awesomesauce in 2011. It’s actually pretty hard for me to imagine 2012 being better than that.
No big life events planned and no super huge crazy travel plans. Just the Ancestry.com trip in January and RootsTech in February – which will both be awesome. After that I’ll be able to actually start conserving my time-off. Maybe towards the end of the year we’ll plan a bigger vacation, who knows what 2012 will bring?!
Time to go work on my list of New Years resolutions!
I am glad I could be a part of your year this year. It really was quite awesome to see you so happy! I have to admit that seeing your cuisine weeks really made me want to start cooking more at home. I went to the library a few days ago and picked out some different books to steal recipes from. I have started to increase the number of cooking type stuff in my kitchen too. :) If you have a killer recipe I would love to know so I could try it. I want to learn how to do curries… We will see if/when that ever happens. :)
Leanne, It was so wonderful to have you in/at our wedding! And it seemed like you were pretty happy at the time too, which is awesome :)
Glad my cuisine weeks could inspire you. My next theme might be Vietnamese or Chinese – not sure yet. Are you still vegetarian / vegan? I should have a few recipes I can send your way! You better do the same for me! hehe :)