Wherein my kids tell you how their Christmas haul went, because it’s all about that to them.  And I share the current state of my floor. Until I lose my mind and make them put it all away. Probably this afternoon.

Here’s the greeting card we ended up ordering from Shutterfly. I even managed to mail about 40 of them. Still have some to give out in person. They came a little later than I was hoping, but they do look nice.

All the best to you and yours. We’re off to my parents’ house to celebrate Christmas with my maternal grandparents, and my brother.

This was the year in the life of this blog. Or in the blog of this life. Both, I think.

In January, we had just spent the holidays in the UK.

In February, I moved to self-hosted WordPress as my blogging platform. Honestly, I thought I did that over a year ago. I had no idea. The lovely Suburban Mum made me this lovely template – I’m so lucky to have had her help in making the leap.  I’m glad I did it.  Recently I even managed to change my header all! by! my! self!

In April, we tagged along on Mark’s business trip to Florida, so we had a day at Disney World that the kids still talk about.

May and June were quiet.

Actually, they weren’t that quiet. We were desperately trying to get our house ready to put up for sale, which we did in at the end of June/beginning of July.

Just in time to head to the UK again.

At the end of July, Callum broke his elbow. I still kind of can’t believe that happened.

In August, I went to Blogher again, and had a really good time.

In September, Oliver started senior kindergarten, and I went back to commuting to Toronto for work. Which is part of the reason there’s been so few blog posts since.

In October, I visited my grandparents’ home for the last time before they move out next week to a senior’s residence.

In November, I wrote about Oliver’s surprise mentions of god and heaven, which inspired Annie from Phd in Parenting’s post, which gave me a few more page hits than normal. If you knew the sad state of my stats…

In December, I found out I was a finalist in the ‘best written’ category of the Canadian Weblog Awards 2010 and got freaked out.

This year, overall, in the life of this blog, was the year that I monetized.  I mean, I didn’t monetize very much.  I made about $2 from Google Ads – woo hoo! I wrote some posts for Mom Central Canada campaigns which are primarily compensated by gift cards and products. (by the way – Mom Central Canada staff? Are totally lovely).  I also recently joined the Urban Moms Blogger Network. 

I did a bunch of reviews.  I attended a few PR events. I feel really, really lucky about the opportunities that have come my way from this little hobby blog.  It’s a neat sidebar to my full-time-outside-of-the-house job. I am, however, always looking for the balance between work and hobby, and monetizing and integrity.  If it makes me uncomfortable, I won’t do it.   

I also got a lot more comments than I ever have before – which I really, really appreciate. They’re like gold these days. I know. I used to get NONE.

I also solidified some real life friendships that started online.  Which is really, really awesome.

This year, overall, in the blog of this life, was mostly about pushing ahead, mostly towards an end goal of moving house, which will have a cascade effect of making a lot of other things easier. 

Alas, the house has not yet sold.  We are patient. We will wait.

We look ahead to the twists and turns that 2011 will bring – for we know there will be many. Stay tuned. Thanks for reading. I’m still having a good time, after all this time.

Or something. What posers. Or poseurs?

The thing is that I never thought anyone was reading this blog, because they weren’t for the longest time. Except my mother. And then I made some friends that leapt off my screen due to blogging (fantastic, by the way) – so I know they read sometimes, mostly out of some kind of loyalty I guess, for better or worse. And then in the last year I got nominated for a Canadian Weblog Award (CWA) in a couple of categories by a friend, and I thought that was sweet of her, and then never thought anything of it again. Because let’s be honest, I’m not actually trying to win any awards here.

I’m not planning on writing a book or something (though if you’re a blogger, and you are – what excellent experience). I’m not a writer with a capital W. I read lots and lots of excellent Writers who happen to write blogs, amongst other things. I love good writing. I just don’t particularly think of this blog as good writing. I can think of a few posts that I know are good. The rest? I am OK with just being OK. Mediocrity is just fine by me.

I’ve always written for myself – I can’t remember not having a journal. I still have some of my high school ones (I’ll burn them one day. Maybe.). This space is kind of a continuation of that, in a way, except I know that a few people are reading it now, other than me. I’m also lucky enough to have a full time paying job far removed from this space where I can think and write – in a different way. With proper grammar and a more technical form, for internal communications purposes, primarily.

I was kind of shocked yesterday to discover I was a finalist, in the top 5, for Best Written in the CWAs.  Of all categories. Me? Moi? And when I look at the original list of nominees and I see so many blogs I love, written so well, I’m completely confused. Of course, there’s excellent writing not even nominated. And of course the list completely misses the excellent writing of Schmutzie herself, because she’s the administrator of the awards. My fellow nominees include Cheaty, Thordora and Kate – fantastic, fantastic.

(And I hate linking to some and not all, because inevitably, I’ve left some out, and YOU are overlooked on that list and so are YOU. Just know if you’re in my feed reader, and there’s about 200 there, it’s good writing. I’m picky. The end.)

The special thing about the Canadian Weblog Awards is that instead of everyone begging for votes like seemingly most other blog-related awards (which, really, I can’t stand, and I would never be able to bring myself to participate in), these have a panel of 49 judges, with set criteria. Which is awesome. But also leads me to go “what the hell were they thinking?!”.

Thank you, CWA jury. But I totally do not understand this one. (I think I have to close comments on this – I’m totally not fishing for ‘I love your blog!’ comments, whether or not I deserve them – I’m just trying to process this.) Now, back to my regularly scheduled mediocrity…