2013 vs Goals: How'd I Do?

A couple of weeks after 2013 began, I posted some thoughts on how this year would be different.  Before it ends, a quick check on how well those plans came about:

• Item 1, get a puppy: Huge Furry Check.  As you know, Fergie has been brightening our home since early February.
• Item 2, renovate the master bath and/or kitchen: Kinda Check.  After all the back and forth and side distractions, the contracts have been signed, and work begins next month on our new master bathroom.  The kitchen will have to wait.
• Item 3, redo living room etc.: Kinda Check.  The scrapbooking materials have indeed been moved downstairs, and David has chosen to make it part of his Family Life merit badge for Scouts to (a) clear out the train stuff and make a space for Mary's scrapping downstairs, and then (b) help us paint the living room a new color.  He's taken apart one of the now-extraneous train sets; we need to finish with the others and then move onto the painting (once Mary selects a color).
• Item 4, drumming: Big Check.  Not only have I my own kit now, but I've had several more opportunities to play, both with my home church but now also with Burke UMC's LifeSign service,the latter of which I never would have anticipated at the start of the year.  As 2014 begins, I'm sharing lead drum duties in both places, it would appear….
• Item 5, writing projects: Ummm….  In reality I've begun collecting materials for two projects, one of which is further along than the other, but neither is done this year, and if I'm honest with myself, I'll be lucky to finish by the time I'm 50.

Isn't that always how it seems to go with my goals? Some things done completely, some things under way and moving in the right direction, and some other things I just haven't been able to move the ball on as much as I had hoped.  Candidly, I doubt 2014 will be much different: some things I may deeply want to accomplish, I will probably look back in 365 days and say, Well, that didn't work out.  That doesn't mean we don't keep trying: which, if anything, is probably the best or even the only lesson I can take from any New Year's resolutions.

Christmas 2013

We've posted a set of pictures from our Christmas morning adventures; click here or on the link at right, and come see our holiday!

Observations: Christmas 2013

Thoughts that occur to me as Christmas afternoon fades to Christmas evening:

• We've got a good doggie.  When we set up the Christmas tree, there was a momentary look of "these people are insane: they bring a tree inside!"  Apart from that, she's scarcely paid it any attention.  We were careful to put the breakable decorations up high; turns out she really couldn't care less about it.
• We're in kinda a sweet spot for getting up Christmas morning.  The kids are still enough into Christmas that they want to get up early and go see what the presents are.  As teen/pre-teens, though, they're not banging on my head at 5:30 anymore.  I was able to sleep in until after 7:00 this year.  Maybe next year, 7:30?
• We're also really past the whole drama of not having received every single thing on our wish lists. And surprises--like Sarah receiving a recurve bow and some arrows, and David receiving .380 ammo and personal protective gear for shooting--are beginning to be more appreciated.
• I am really just about thisclose to a food coma from the bacon-wrapped roast pork tenderloin (and everything else that was on the dinner table).  That's a lotta pork.
• Between Mary and David, 17 DVD/video-game sized packages were opened.  Mary should be set on her Bond movies for a few hours.  David has already learned how to kill everything in Call of Duty Ghosts…that didn't take long.
• Is it a sign that I'm getting old, when I really do appreciate the oh-so-practical gifts more than the rest?
• All the baking, all the cooking, and despite our best efforts there's still about as much food left as when we started.  I really could have done half the prep and still felt overfull at the end.

Our Christmas Card

This year, we decided to try something new: Instead of mailing several, several dozen Christmas cards and writing a letter, we've gone online.  Welcome our new Christmas card blog, kleppingers2013.blogspot.com, where we've posted up photos, videos, and descriptions of our year--a little bit about each of us, including our furry addition.  Click over to see how our year went, then be sure to return and hit the Subscribe To Us links at the right.

ATL24

A couple of weeks ago I posted an essay on the ballet of Delta planes at Atlanta International Airport.  How could I have known that CNN was already at work on a documentary, exploring 24 hours in the life of that airport and all that goes on in and out of the terminal?

"ATL24" is a multimedia production on cnn.com that shows some of the beauty I was trying, poorly, to capture.  View the video trailer, then click over to the main site and follow a day in the life of the world's busiest airport, then maybe watch how they made it...and then tell me what you think--is there beauty to be seen there, or is it all just utilitarian point-A-to-point-B?