A lovely trip to Ireland.

Hmmmm, probably the highlight was my oldest son graduating from college. One down, one to go! 2009 was a pretty good year healthwise. I just hope 2010 is too.

hmmm, trip to Scotland/Ireland!

No, think it was GS wanting to spend the day with me and his opening up to me about his life! Yep, that was the bestest!

I think getting our kitten, Nosey Parker, was the best thing that happened to us this year. She has made us laugh more than anything I can remember.

My sons Eagle Scout Ceremony.Very touching and made me so proud of him.

Shelley

Probably having a wild deer eat from my hand at the state park.
Doesn't take much to thrill me!

can't believe this is so hard for me to answer. lol
guess it would be DS getting out of the hospital after 7 days with no more problems.
Or me getting my emergency surgery in time so I didn't kick the bucket!
LOL guess that is a high light! LOL and DS making it home safely for the holidays.

Our 2 month (47 days in Alaska) trip through the Yukon and in Alaska. Grand memories. Nanny

My wedding, of course.

Mine was Allison! :)

{{gwi:1580624}}

My daughter, who lived for a few years in AZ several years ago and returned there recently, bought a condo in Phoenix in spring '08 and invited her Dad to come down to see it in Jan. '09.

She flew me from Detroit to Phoenix (much less expensive than from Toronto) and paid my fare by airbus to Detroit ...

... took me on an outing to the Grand Canyon ...

... then surprised me by hosting a family gathering to celebrate my 80th birthday. It included my sister and friend, who have a trailer in Mesa, and brother and spouse from Saskatchewan, niece from Alberta and niece and husband from GA.

Daughter and niece from Alberta are active, vivacious, gregarious and happy people. Daughter flew from Phoenix to Edmonton several years ago to help celebrate the other niece's grad as a nurse.

We had a really happy time together.

Thankful to be almost entirely enjoying good health: there appears to be a small fly in the ointment.

ole joyful

One of my friends at church gave me a car. Makes my life so much easier!!!!

Getting to meet our new granddaughter on Oahu in June.
Another biggie was that DS and family moved back to NYC after spending a couple of years in Tokyo.

I guess turning 50 was the highlight of my year. I had some memorable moments surrounding my big day (some good, some not so good).

DD getting engaged on Xmas Eve and married on New Years Eve.

Personal highlight was spending an afternoon with a friend who had me so at ease I never had to waste a moment on watching my own back. That rarely rarely happens these days.

Casey

As soon as I saw the posting subject and your name I thought it would be New York and Dustin Hoffman. I was half right.

Clean bill of health for my voice box problem. Birth of my first Great Nephew and turning 50!

Health for all of our family!!

DD Kalie's wedding the end of Oct....then finding out the end of Dec I am going to be a Nana!!! =)

Moni...I swear to you, that Allison has Got to be one of the most beautiful babies!!!!!!!!

Our daughter's visit and the birth of two of our greatgrandkids were the highlights of the year.

My son moving back home temporarily, I've enjoyed every single moment of him being here.

Receiving the news that the Oncotype DX test determined I am LOW RISK for recurrance of my cancer, and therefore Chemo wasn't required.

Buying my very first new car in August and my trip to CA a couple of weeks later. It has been a fun year.

Our trip to Nashville with our best friends.

ole joyful...

Lovely visitations!

Now...

what kind of a fly are you talking about?

Getting my old house. I had wanted it for several years.

Sons graduation from college.
The same son getting engaged in the Fall.
All five kids going backpacking with me for a week in July.

Ron

I think it was just a highlight that everything went well this year. No one was sick, no close relatives died, my job went well, DH had a brief period of unemployment but found a new position before severance ran out. We just had an overall good year with many blessings at a time when many people are struggling and to me that's a huge highlight. Aside from that it was kind of fun to get an HDTV and an iPhone but I wouldn't call that a highlight - more like new toys.

Joyful, that's wonderful. That was a really nice thing for your daughter to do. Fly in the ointment? Squash it!

Nanny, what a fabulous trip. We did a briefer trip into the Yukon: Dawson, Eagle, Tok, and fabulous Chicken. You must have gotten to those places as well, and more. Were you independent or on a tour? We'd love to go back.

As for this year, I would say getting the house termite treated, roofed, and painted was pretty good. We also took a really nice trip to Seattle, another Inside Passage/Alaska cruise, and I spent a few days with sister in Port Angeles. My son got a job in his chosen field.

Son being promoted to Fire Captain and the birth of my
second grandson Christopher Jude.

The birth of my second child. :)

Socks...the 47 days was a 20 rig Winnebago Caravan...43 people. Just AWESOME , and we did see and do almost everything. Now I hope to do the cruise, more towards winter to see the Northern Lights. (Possibly less stress for the driver)Would do it again in a heratbeat. Nanny

This thread is uplifting to read. Also, I'd been thinking of 2009 as not a very good year . . . but when I reviewed my own highlights I realized it was just fine.

My son got engaged.

My daughter got a promotion.

My granddaughter graduated high school and had a great first semester in college.

My two photography exhibits were more exciting than I could have imagined, and were a real confidence booster for me. Two more are lined up for next summer!

Socks, I like the idea of squashing Joyful's fly. (Hmmmm..... should I have worded it quite that way?) LOL

Seeing La Boheme at the Metropolitan Opera is one of the highlights.

Mine would be the 2 weeks last summer that my 3 grandkids came to visit while their parents were out of the country. We had such fun!

And, also, my having lost 25# (and kept it OFF over the holidays)!

December 22, 2009

My 17 y/o daughter and I sat on my bed wrapping Christmas presents, laughing and talking like any mother/daughter would. Only it had been a 1 1/2 years since we've had a simple moment like that. The memory brings a happy tear to my eyes even now.

fran - how does one go about getting tickets to La Boheme at the Metropolitan Opera? DH would LOVE that!

The highlight of my year was my son proposing to his gf of 6 years. Also DH and I spent two weeks in Europe and had a fantastic time. It was the first trip we have taken alone since our honeymoon 29 years ago.

My Son's Wedding last February.

Three meetups with KT'ers.

My husband entered into a buy-sell agreement for his business and totally retired at age 54. His work was physically demanding and while it kept him in good physical shape there are times that I was afraid he would work himself to death. He's a great guy and deserves it. Also, he isn't lazy and he works for ME now!

The highlight of my Year 2009 was the increase in my new location's Purple Martin colony.

The first summer we lived here, 2008, I had one lone pair of Purple Martins. They were raising five chicks when the female died. Papa Martin continued to feed and care for the nestlings and successfully fledged all five chicks. He was alone for their last 10 days while they were still in the nest.

The second summer, 2009, saw me with four nesting pairs. They successfully fledged 17 chicks.

I can hardly wait for May 10, the projected due date of "my" PMs return from Brazil!

Just a few of my 2009 blessings.

The reason I do it all! My reward and one of my happiest joys...

And my biggest highlight? My Harry Boy, still serenading me. Sam is in my heart, but Harry is my heart.

By the way, Harry has all of his fine, strong teeth. He just has too many "lips" and his teeth tend to be hidden, especially when he's being silly.

Definitely the birth of my daughter.

But also Grant started preschool because it was a new chapter in life for him. He's learned so many things (life lesson type things) and I'm proud of him for overcoming the HUGE fear he had of me leaving him there.

My first granddaughter was born at the end of July. GD and DD lives 800 miles from my house. And then, at 6 AM on the day before Christmas, my daughter and grand daughter appeared on my door step. My other two sons arrived a little later. It was the first time that we all had been together since 5 years ago. Yes, it was the event of the year!

2009 was a quiet year here and after the awful 2008 I'm glad. My highlights were simply watching my family grow- my eldest finally got the promotion and raise that his bosses promised him a year ago, moved into a new apartment and has a wonderful girlfriend. My middle child is finishing law school and has a girlfriend who's a good mental match for him and a job which will become full time when he graduates in May. My daughter is worried that she'll be laid off soon so I told her to look on the bright side and use this opportunity to find something that she likes better. I know, not easy in these times.

Maybe next year I'll have something major to report!

I want to Thank all of you for poasting the high-lites of the year.As look back, I guess we had nothing special other than the Lord did lead us thru another year.
Thanks again for sharing yours. Some really great Events.

The absolute highlight of my year was attending the 2009 Iditarod sled dog race starts in Anchorage and Willow Alaska and more importantly, the eight mile ride on the back of a dog sled at the kennels of 14 time Iditarod musher, Vern Halter. What an experience!

Jodi-

Getting to see my dad in November was first. Second, work hired temp workers to decrease our patient load. No more 12-18 patients. Max we're allowed to have is 7 now. They are taking away our CNAs now, though, and LPNs will not be giving majority of our patient's meds, we will. But, still better than being responsible for half a med-surg unit.

The births of 3 more grandkids. Twins, Kate and Cole in February and baby Kendall in April..

Another wonderful year with hubby being retired.. We just do what we want all the time now... We certainly are blessed in so many ways...

And another wonderful holiday season with our families...

Susie

First would be getting through Chemo,and all that it entails.
Second would be our trip in Nov.to N.Calif to see our GD& GS and our great GK'S.Thye make my heart sing.I'll be sooooooooo happy and so will they when they are able to move back this way.
Kathi

Visits from GD in August and GS in November. They are 21 and 24 now and such a pleasure to be with. Also thankful for Harry's health, which gets really iffy at times. I'm slowly learning that little things can be great highlights!

For me, 2009 was plagued with health issues. This summer, I had surgery to remove a giant cell tumor from my thumb. (Minor surgery...so they say...)

I barely recovered from that when I injured my tailbone. I suffered dearly for a couple of months, then went to a doctor who gave me a series of spinal injections. I am at about 98% now.

Then on New Year's Eve, I got a nasty case of food poisoning and thought I was going to die.

So I guess as far as "good" highlights, I'm glad I had six good months before starting my downward spiral! LOL!