Bye 2012!

2012 has been a wild year for us, and it has flown by in the blink of an eye!  Life has been so busy I didn’t even get to mail out Christmas cards this year but don’t worry, I have them all ready for next year and will have them to the post office by December 1^st (which sounds like a lifetime away!).

2012 started slowly for us, Royal Ribbons was doing well and picking up after the holidays.  I filled my calendar with lunches and book club and Civic Awards meetings as well as worked on plans for the Business Excellence Awards night – I was asked to join the committee and since I had the time I agreed to help out.

February was spent working on big changes to the Civic Awards program and ceremony.  We spent almost a year revamping the entire event so we had lots of meetings to discuss bylaws, logos, scripts etc.  Fortunately we had a very mild winter so getting out and about was easy – I don’t think I wore my boots once!

March was busy with committee meetings as all of the awards nights were coming up quickly.  I also turned 41 and seem to have firmly crossed the Rubicon.  I was invited to a volunteer dinner in town and it was nice to be the one being waited on for an evening.  It’s always great to see so many people dedicated to their community gathered in one spot!

The Little Prince turned 4 in April and amid the flurry of events we had a nice little family party for him at home.  A few of my friends came by for cake and champagne…and photos with the Thomas mural!

May found me on a plane, on my way to Scotland for a week.  I had a great time staying in Stirling and got to see lots of cousins.  In true Scottish fashion, it rained all but one day but that’s alright, I had loads of fun anyway.  

In June it was time to get back to business…Royal Ribbons was a year old and I was enjoying meeting new people and making lots of great contacts.  I also provided lunch for my Rotary Club while they worked at the Habitat for Humanity site which is such an amazing experience.  I got to meet the woman the house was being built for and can’t think of anyone more deserving.  At this point I ended up with some sort of stomach flu, which is a great weight loss program…after about 10 days I managed to get out on my wobbly Bambi legs to attend a monument dedication, in the sun and heat…I didn’t last long!

July is when everything changed.  Policing in our town was up for debate and the people didn’t like it.  I attended a council meeting that made me so angry I offered to join forces with the biggest curmudgeon in town to fight town hall.  We were at risk of losing our police force and a committee was formed, I was named chair and within 24 hours we were on the front page of the newspapers, money was pouring in and the town know they had a fighting chance.  6 weeks of fundraising, meetings, flyers, newspaper and radio advertisements, sign blitzes, interviews, letters to the editor, t-shirts, a march led by our local pipe band, a rally, and my speech to council in front of a packed gallery – the vote was deferred until December.  It was supposed to happen on September 11^th – the irony did not go unnoticed – but we were faced with having to wait more than three months to find out if we would be able to keep our police force.  

In the middle of all of this, my parents moved to town – just in time to see me in the papers each week, I was presented with my Chamber of Commerce plaque, the Little Prince attended a teddy bear picnic, we went to a Big Band concert in the park, the Little Prince played on a soccer team for the first time, our Danish exchange student arrived for a year, we found a new school for the Little Prince, dropped the ceremonial puck at the local hockey team's opening game, attended the fall fair, I took up shooting, provided the meal at a weekly poverty dinner, took the Little Prince to a Wiggles concert, went to a wine tasting (and was poured into my house at the end of the evening), celebrated Thanksgiving with our parents and our exchange student, and did a flight in a fellow Rotarian’s private plane with the exchange student so she could see the area in the fall from the sky.  I was also juggling other committee commitments as well…sometimes having to work with the politicians I was fighting against – life is nothing if not complicated!

Fortunately another councilor decided December was too long to wait and asked that the vote be on October 30^th.  This left us 6 weeks to fill so the police committee got to work on a few information brochures and I spent my time gently lobbying a councilor and the deputy mayor.  Coffees, phone calls and talks in the hallways of town hall have become the norm.  Fortunately, when the vote came down, after an hour of debating in council chambers, one of the councilors decided to listen to the people who elected him and changed his vote.  Town hall erupted in applause as it was finally decided we would be keeping our police force.  I felt like I could breathe for the first time in months!  We all went to the pub for champagne, speeches and to hang out with the cops.  I turned to address the police chief at one point during my speech and saw him wipe a tear away.  This is how important the fight was for our town.  

In November I reconnected with friends I have missed for a few months, got to work on choosing next year’s outbound exchange student for the Rotary club, started plans for the 2013 Christmas committee and started thinking about the holidays.  We saw the holiday train go through town and I’ve decided to try to get it to stop here next year.  We attended the candlelight walk through town and the lighting of the park, and the Santa Claus parade.

In December I worked a lot, took the exchange student to Toronto for the Christmas Market and dinner at my favourite spot, met with the head of the poverty coalition to talk about forming a board in January, organized a pot luck dinner for the Rotary club, rang the bell for the Salvation Army outside the liquor store (I knew I would see most of the people I know), went to the Little Prince’s school pageant, took a stuffed animal for the hockey team’s annual Teddy Bear Toss and wound up in the paper again for helping out…and then everything came to a screeching halt when the Little Prince got sick, then fell down and did something to his ankle that has left him in a cast for a few weeks.  He spent more than a week in bed and I wasn’t sure he would manage Christmas…but the little guy rallied and managed to smile while opening his presents and got to see his grandparents.  I took a few hours away on Christmas day to serve lunch to the poor as a friend of mine organizes it each year.  It was lots of busy, fun work and quite a few of my friends did the same, donned an apron and provided a nice meal for people who wouldn’t have one otherwise.

I have been busy getting Royal Ribbons back on track; I added a few new products and have plans to add more in 2013.  The latest is custom mugs which I spent a day traveling all over the city to prepare for and in one day got enough orders to put me in the black – I’m calling it a success!   Life is still all about meetings and lunches – I get calls from all over the place from people asking me to help them take on their own town hall – so I keep busy, which is fine with me!

The Little Prince is doing well in Montessori school and he is making lots of friends there.  The Suburban Prince has been working away , doing his thing, and I have taken a part time job at a local funeral home, as well as joining a few more committees.  

I am exhausted just proof reading all that!  Yes, I tend to bite off more than I can chew but isn’t that what makes life fun?  2013 will be another wild year I’m sure – and I am looking forward to it!

From my family to yours, all the very best for 2013! 

2008 was the worst and hardest year of my life.
2009 was about picking up the pieces and survival.
2010 was about figuring it all out.
2011 was meant to be epic but I can't remember much of it!
2012 was my year.  I found my stride, proved what I am made of and plan to take that into 2013 to accomplish more, bigger, better things.

Look out world! 

Happy New Year!
Happy Hogmanay!


 
Have a fabulous day!