A Year in Review

On the eve of a new year, what better way to reflect, than to look through my hundreds of pictures and remember all that I've experienced and accomplished. 2010 was a crazy fun year and if I had to think of one word that best describes it, it would be CHANGE.

Here are my favourite pics, one from each month, except February and April, because apparently I didn't take pictures those months.

In January, I tackled one of my lifelong fears! Skating. I can't believe that as a Canadian, I didn't learn how to skate until I was 28 years old. M taught me on the outdoor rink at Millenium Park and now I love it! Can't wait to get back out there!

The picture I chose from March is taken at one of my favourite Chicago cafes, Argo Tea, when I was visiting M one weekend. To me, it symbolizes all of the traveling I did from Toronto to Chicago in those six months I was living as a single lady. It seems so long ago that M and I were living in different cities, but we survived, and I definitely gained back my independence, which I think is a really good thing.

In May all of my family members got together *I think* to celebrate Mother's Day and Father's Day. It's a rare occurrence when every single one of us is present. I like my family a lot.

June was a pretty stressful month. Packing up our condo and wrapping up the school year all in one week was a crazy. Here's the last picture I took of our first owned home, just as we walked out of the door. Sad.

But onto bigger and better things, right? I moved to Chicago on July 1st and spent the summer exploring. One of the best touristy things I've done so far is the architectural boat tour. Love love love Chicago in the summer. It comes alive.

August was all about Africa and climbing Kilimanjaro wasn't just the highlight of this year, it's the most challenging thing I've done in all my life, thus far, anyway :)

September's picture is from Philly, the city of Brotherly Love. This one reminds me of how much I travelled this year, the most I've ever done in one year before... Chicago so many times, Tanzania, New Orleans, Philly, and Nashville. I'm one lucky girl.

Fall was spectacular here. I can't remember experiencing a true season of fall in so long. This picture was taken mid October on the patio at our local watering hole.. $3 Margaritas. Need I say more.

We've also been really lucky this year was a ton of friends and family visiting us in Chicago. In November we had a lot of visitors, including my BFF. Fun, fun.

And now, December. Experiencing the first year's snowfall with my doggie boy was lovely. At first I thought his favourite thing was eating tree branches in the fall, but oh no, eating snowballs in winter is ten times better. I love this picture because he looks ridiculously scary.

I'd say this year was one of the best but I've got some travel plans in the works to make 2011 good competition.