The Baboon Congress

2015 Was the Year That …

43 Comments

Today’s post comes from Barbara in Robbinsdale

There was a fun article in the Dec. 27 Mpls. Star Tribune about the eventual demise of the annual Christmas/Holiday Letter, since so many people are getting a play-by-play look at each other’s lives on Facebook. “Status updates may have removed all the surprise about what the children are up to, but they have all of the shelf life of a brown banana.” The writer, Paul John Scott, appreciated one of those letters he still receives, from a person who “has managed to boil his family intel down to four lines of text…”

I sent out the cheery Christmas letter that included all the fun stuff (and for each item below, I’ve left out the sad or stressful parts) from 2015:

  • trip to France, and later to California
  • singing and dance events
  • Husband’s finding a Mathnasium gig to fill the extra hours in his week
  • Nephew & Family’s visit after Christmas (they’ve taken a side trip out of town for a couple of days, which is the only reason I’m writing this)

If I had to condense it to one sentence, I think it would be:  2015 was the year we first traveled to France. (Alternately: 2015 was when we finally got the ping pong table out of the living room.)

If you were to sum up 2015 with a sentence about the  most important thing that happened in your life, what would it say?

Or if you’d like to muse on the year that’s just arrived:

What would you like to write next December as a one sentence wrap of 2016?

 

43 thoughts on “2015 Was the Year That …”

  1. For most years I couldn’t pick out just one Important event for the year. I like living life from day to day. Of course, some days and events are better than others. However, for most years I’d rather not single out a single day or event as the best. Never-the less, there was a very special day that really stood out in 2015. That special day was the day that my Grandson, Seeger, was born.

    Seeger is not my first Grandchild. I also have two Granddaughters. Their arrivals were also big events in my life. I was glad to see that the Granddaughters don’t seem to be jealous over all of the attention focused on the birth of Seeger. Seeger is the first child born to my younger daughter who very much wanted a child. That is one of the reason’s his arrival was such a big event.

    Other very memorable things about him are his time of birth, which was at the peak of an eclipse of the moon, and they way he was born. My daughter was in labor for two days. At the end of those two days she delivered Seeger by cesarian birth. He weighed 9 and a half pounds at birth and had a big round moon shaped head with chubby cheeks.

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  4. My biggie was much the same as Jim’s.
    My FIRST grandson was born on New Year’s Day 2015. I’ve only seen him twice but am heading out this weekend for a late celebration of his birthday.
    If I were allowed a second choice and one that, in truth, had a bigger impact, it would be my retirement in July.

    For 2016, my hope is that rumblings from California that said grandson and parents may move back to Minnesota prove prescient.

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  5. Hi–
    What a neat concept to come up with one sentence to summarize the year.
    2015 was good for us for so many things.

    I’ll dwell on that and come back to it.

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  6. Our big event last year has to be the loss of our neighbor.

    I see minor signs that somebody new is probably moving in in 2016.

    My constant prayer is that we will be as good of neighbors to them as she was too us. It will be an effort, but it’s the only thing I have control of in the situation.

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    1. My erstwife used to write our Christmas letter. Alas, she always cranked out those upbeat letters that sound like corporate progress reports. In the early 1980s I read what she was about to send out and threw a fit. “You can’t SAY this crap! I didn’t ‘decide to start a freelance career’; I got FIRED! Last year I got bit by an arctic fox on the streets of Saint Paul! I took the Pepsi Challenge and LOST! You just can’t say this stuff!”

      That was the year I began co-writing the letter. It became longer, funnier and more honest. Our letter became really popular for a while, with all kinds of people asking to go on the mailing list. I think that popularity reflected people’s disgust with the smug self-congratulations so typical of Christmas letters.

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  10. Like Ben, I’m still thinking. Not sure I can get 2015 down to one line and for 2016, should I go for my dearest wish (local woman wins lottery without buying a ticket) or what I think it will be (local woman destroys all her tvs during campaign season).?

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  12. 2015 was the year I traveled and saw some beautiful country, the year the twins continued to systematically destroy my house and everything in it, and the year I started school to study photography.

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  13. For 2015, it’d have to be seeing my 50-year old daughter graduate as an RN after being tied to running her 90-horse ranch while rearing five kids for the last 20 years. She will now at least have a chance at a normal life. 2016’s wish is that she meet a man who deserves her.

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  14. There was nothing particularly distinctive about 2015 for me. It was uneventful. Uneventful is good, in my view.

    2014 was sort of an ugly year for me, a year in which all kinds of things went semi-wrong, yet nothing turned out to be truly disastrous. It was a year of narrow escapes, so to speak. stressful but also leaving me much to be grateful for. 2015 allowed my cortisol levels to return to normal.

    As for 2016, I have no idea what will actually happen. I’d like to be able to write that I finished a number of projects that had been languishing, including a partially-finished bathroom remodel that has been waiting for funds to become available. I’d hate to jinx it by predicting that 2016 will be the year, though.

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  17. 2015 was a big year for me. Having sold my home and moved to Oregon, 2015 was all about creating a new life in a new place. I brought almost nothing from my former life. The big challenge now is to create something new here, although my options seem to be limited by several factors.

    My biggest success last year: getting an Oregon driver license. (I passed the written test on the first try, which I’m told “never” happens!)

    My most satisfying accomplishment: I’ve begun feeding birds here, especially a gang of ravenous juncos. Their pleasure becomes my pleasure.

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  19. I still write my “annual report” to mail out. I think I started doing it as a joke on friends who sent their “calendar” of events and I longed for more details. Future project: put them all in a “book” and review my past (preferably without judgment).

    One line summary:
    2015 was retirement, rest, recuperation and Madame Hildegard.

    2016? Continue to practice walking until it is comfortable and at a reasonable speed. Oh, and continue clearing and cleaning shelves, drawers, closets and…(horrors) the basement. Goal: get it done before I die so no one else has to and learn the dark side of my psyche.

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  20. Just finally got to read The Egg Carton post… fun stories, baboons!
    For a couple of years I made Black-Eyed Peas on New Years Eve, a southern (?) tradition that I adopted from I know not where.

    Now we usually have leftovers, as there is a potluck at Tapestry New Years party (and potluck) with both Contra dancing AND International (since there are two dance floors). Then at the stroke of midnight we all gather in the larger space, sing Auld Lang Syne, and dance a simple Swedish Langdans, with live music played by the fiddlers… It’s quite lovely.

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