Best of 2011

For a variety of reasons, I would probably qualify 2011 as the worst year of my life. However, I would like to try to focus on the positive and make a list of things about 2011 that were actually good rather than lament the many things that were truly terrible.

1. Hands down, my discovery of the BBC show Top Gear. I love cars and I love British humour. What could be better? I could (and do) watch this multiple times a week. I've also started watching Bones and Dr. Who. I get involved so easily!!!

Best show ever?

2. Trip to France with my cousins and grandmother. Whatever you love to do most in the world, that's traveling to France for me. Since I was 7 I've loved France and I've been lucky enough to get to Europe two years in a row.

Paris!

3. Enlarging my garden. Now that we have settled into our house, I finally had the time to really expand my garden this year. Next year my goal is to grow all the vegetables that we eat for the year. So part two is : Canning and preserving. With the expanded garden, I've taken my love of cooking/baking into preserving. Lots of roasted vegetables, canned vegetables and frozen vegetables. Sadly it's only January and we're practically out! I have a better handle on how much we need, so hopefully we won't run out until May.

In full bloom

4. New hobbies. Janda and I have been doing lots of new activities this year and hopefully we can expand on those and try some new ones this year.

Janda on my motorcycle

5. Jack-Jack. I hesitate to put him on a best of list because he is so darn annoying, but he is a very nice cat. If we didn't already have two cats when we got him, I would love him to bits. But... he is mean to my babies!

See, he is bad!

Even during the worst year ever, I can think of at least 5 items for my best of list. Not too bad. I'm hoping that 2012 will be much better. Maybe a Top Ten of 2012 next January?