A new year begins!

It's the first day of the new year, 2010, and it dawned clear and cold. Our plans for a New Year's Eve party at a friend's house were postponed when one of the guests had emergency quadruple bypass surgery yesterday at 6:30 a.m. C.J. , a neighbor at our summer camp, had been experiencing chest pains and after a stress test, they scheduled an angiogram last Tuesday. Blockages were discovered and he was hospitalized and the surgery scheduled. Thankfully, all went well and he is resting/recovering well today.

So...having a cleared evening, Bob agreed that we'd babysit the three children of Jenny, our neighbor. Jen had a chance to go with a friend to the MN Wild hockey game and we watched Gavin (6 yrs.), Olivia (9 yrs.) and Mataya (11 yrs.) until 9:15 p.m., when Grandpa came and picked them up to stay over at his house. We had fun, watching the Disney channel and playing "Sorry" (Bob won.) I taught the girls "Othello" and after the kids left, challenged Bob to a game. He begrudgingly agreed, as he hates to play games and I beat him by one point! He said that he was bored and hadn't really tried. We stayed up and drank fuzzy navels (the orange juice at least feels healthy) and watched the ball drop in New York (rebroadcast) at midnight. As we cuddled in bed to get warm, we could still hear the fireworks going off somewhere. The "blue full moon" welcomed in a brand new year - any predictions?

Here are my predictions, or at least my "hopes":

1. Bob and I will lose at least twenty pounds each by this time next year (and keep them off).
2. I will have my knees attended to by a mighty good doctor. Will get back to walking.
3. Bob will retire from the First Aid Team at the Metrodome and will begin a new hobby.
4. Both Bob's and my mothers will continue in good, albeit fragile, health.
5. Eric schedules the patent exam, will study really hard and will pass it!
6. The whole family is able to be together with us sometime in August - our 40th anniversary.
7. Mike is offered a promotion at the law firm, Jess starts volunteering with the kids' schools.
8. Andrew and Joey love swimming and Catherine not only walks, she runs!
9. Josie loves her chorale group and her violin; Sasha stars in soccer, Tammi does bike marathons.
10. Scott decides, reluctantly, to begin an MBA program (on-line?) and does wonderfully.
11. Bob and I schedule a trip for January 2011 - Viet Nam?

Politically: the health care bill passes, the stock market continues to rise slowly, Michelle Bachman's legislative seat is eliminated due to new census findings, Michelle Obama comes out with a new initiative meant to strengthen African-American families and create meaningful community service and job training for jailed inmates, Sen. Amy Klobuchar is considered a likely successor to Vice President Joe Biden in 2012, Iran's government is overthrown, Iraq continues to stabilize - even though there's some rough times and the war in Afghanistan looks more hopeful due to a change in top Afghan leaders.

Those are my predictions...what are your hopes and dreams for next year? I invite you to reply with your "top ten". My greatest hope is freedom from worry for all my family and friends in the year to come and if that's not possible, the strength to deal with what comes our way.