I don’t approve of New Years resolutions, they’re silly things decided at an arbitrary time for dubious reasons and doomed to be forgotten completely 2 weeks later.

So I don’t make them. Except when I do. And usually not on New Years Day. We might come back to that later.

2013 has not been a particularly fabulous year, it began with us all exhausted from the renovations of the previous year and my dad in hospital with a combination of knee injury and lithium toxicity and then Stuff Happened and I never did quite feel like we got a chance to recover.

There were good bits though:

• Took Tom to see Neil Gaiman and FourPlay.
• Discovered Jasper Fforde.
• Made jams, lemon butter and chutney with friends and had yummy homemade stuff to eat for months afterwards.

• Caitlin played a spoon in the high school’s production of Beauty and the Beast.

• Thoroughly enjoyed the Reenactment conference on the Easter weekend.

• Went to the All About Women event at the Sydney Opera House.
• Had an awesome time at Cherchez la Femme and discovered Lady Sings it Better.
• Tom was offered a spot in the academic extension class for Yr7.
• Blacktown Medieval Fayre was great, as usual.
• Joss Whedon gave us a fabulous Much Ado About Nothing.
• Tim Minchin in Jesus Christ Superstar was also fabulous.
• Tom channeled Marvin the Paranoid Android in his performance of a depressed jester for the Drawbridge Entertainment production of What a Knight! and also sang beautifully.

• We Christmased in July at Wentworth Falls with good friends.

• Caitlin won a 2nd place trophy and a Highly Commended ribbon at the Castle Hill Performing Arts Festival.
• Caitlin was also awesome in the Drawbridge Entertainment Youth Theatre productions of Angel’s Children and Bus Stop.

• We saw First Dog On the Moon’s show Cartoobs and other typos! and laughed a lot.

• Tom was singled out among 500 kids and thanked for his enthusiasm by the conductor at the rehearsal for the Arts North Choral concert. And I could totally hear him singing during the concert. (NB slight exaggeration possible here.)

• I enjoyed another wonderful Needle in a Haystack weekend of crafting and conversation at Berry Sport and Rec camp.
• Caitlin got to record backing vocals for one of the tracks on Helen Perris’ new EP and they were indeed used in the released version.

• We saw P!nk in concert. Fucking perfect.
• I did what I could by handing out how to vote leaflets for The Greens and smiling at a lot semi-hostile people on election day.

• Tim Minchin and Toby Schmitz in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern were so good that I remember that day as a good one despite the disastrous mood 2 of my kids were in.
• Beorgwic was brilliant. As always. And had LOTS of cicadas.

• I found my lost weaving mojo and played with some new patterns.

• For my birthday I received more cowbell. What more could anyone wish for?

• Tom performed P!nk’s Try at the school talent quest and got the whole school up dancing and singing along. (He was awarded 3rd place in the singing section against some very stiff competition.)
• The whole family had a great time at Bell Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors.
• Adam and I ran away for a night at the Park Hyatt Sydney and saw John Doyle’s new play Vere (Faith) at the Opera House. John Doyle was sitting a couple of rows in front of us in the audience. The play was brilliant.

• I ran away for a weekend in the Hunter Valley all by myself and it was glorious.

• Caitlin was invited to busk in Hornsby Mall’s Tuesday Tunes program because she is “considered to be a high-quality busker” this meant that for 1 hour on New Years Eve she got to sing using amplification and without us paying a booking fee.

• My children have all been absolutely wonderful at taking up the slack and looking after me while I’ve been out of commission with a severed tendon in my right little finger. Especially David who has been doing a lot of the cooking.

• Tom was a very convincing Hamlet and Caitlin sang and danced beautifully at the Drawbridge Entertainment End of Year Showcase and I was immensely proud of Tom’s scholarship award for Excellence in Drama and Caitlin’s Best New Talent award.

• All 3 kids’ school reports made me very proud and happy. David in particular because of the huge improvements since his half-yearly report.
• Tom finished year 6, we are done with Primary School for good!

• We Christmas partied on a stinking hot day and Santa looked like he was going to melt and there was an epic water fight and it was wonderful.
• Christmas Day with my Mum and Dad was lovely and relaxing. Not least because I wasn’t doing any of the cooking.
• Boxing Day had Hobbits and Yum Cha.
• My hand therapist was super happy with how everything has healed and gave me permission for splint-free time – I have my hand back!
• Then there was taking Nana out for dinner at Doyles at Watsons Bay and getting sand between the toes.
• And finally there was NYE partying with the best of friends and getting home at 3am and spending the first day of 2014 lazing about doing as little as possible. And it was good.

I was going to finish this post off with a look at some of the less wonderful aspects of the past year, but I’ve changed my mind. Who wants to remember that crap anyway? We’ve made it through and apparently we all still like each other quite a lot, and that’s not so bad really.