{"id":2159,"date":"2012-12-31T22:11:00","date_gmt":"2013-01-01T04:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lizardek.com\/blog\/index.php\/2012\/12\/31\/retrospective-5\/"},"modified":"2022-07-05T14:35:24","modified_gmt":"2022-07-05T12:35:24","slug":"retrospective-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/lizardek.com\/blog\/index.php\/2012\/12\/31\/retrospective-5\/","title":{"rendered":"RETROSPECTIVE"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/lizardek.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/W-7-cap.png\" align=\"left\">e left snowy Sweden a week and a half ago, when the snow was melting and the rain was coming down&#8230;to come to Michigan for the holidays, where it was relatively warm and still green. A couple of days after we arrived, the snow came, too and it&#8217;s been a real winter wonderland ever since&#8230;a true white Christmas. My sister and her family joined us at my mom&#8217;s and the festivities included a huge party 2 days before Christmas with many of my cousins and other relatives, 2 college friends and their families and one friendly internet psycho (hi <a href=\"http:\/\/thehula.livejournal.com\/\" class=\"lj-user\">thehula<\/a>!) and a boatload of food that we are STILL eating the leftovers from.<\/p>\n<p>Christmas was good to us all, and the after-Christmas sales have been even better. >:) Now we&#8217;re winding down a bit. Anders and Karin are going up north to ski for a couple of days and Martin and I will help my mom with things around the house. My sister left 2 days ago, taking her family home, and it sure got quiet quick around here. But we got in lots of cribbage and quality family time before they went, and I have to say, I miss them ALL already.<\/p>\n<p>We&#8217;ve been to see <i>The Hobbit<\/i> and <i>Life of Pi<\/i> and still want to see <i>Lincoln<\/i> and <i>Les Miserables<\/i> if we can swing them before we head back to Sweden at the end of the week. Time sure flies when you&#8217;re having fun!<\/p>\n<p><b>Family &#038; Personal Highlights of 2012<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Weekend trip to Italy in April\n<li>A month of reading old favorite books\n<li>Reunion with my first family in Germany in early summer\n<li>Mom&#8217;s 3-week visit in July\n<li>Karin&#8217;s soccer team winning Gothia Cup in July\n<li>2 week work trip to Boston with Mom and Labor Day weekend with Sam &#038; Joanne\n<li>Martin&#8217;s class winning a science contest and a 3-day trip to London\n<li>The Lego Project\n<li>Committing to a 12-week Fitness challenge\n<li>First Christmas holidays in USA since 2002!<\/ul>\n<p>I read 101 books this year, slightly down from last year, but the same as 2010. I seem to hold steady just over 100, averaging 8.41 a month.<\/p>\n<p><b>Best Books of 2012<\/b> (in no particular order and not including re-reads)<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker\n<li>The Hare With Amber Eyes by Edmund de Waal\n<li>City of Thieves by David Benioff\n<li>The Vanishing Act by Mette Jakobsen\n<li>A Field Guide to Now by Christina Rosalie\n<li>Backseat Saints by Joshilyn Jackson\n<li>Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand\n<li>Doc by Mary Doria Russell\n<li>The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern\n<li>Among Others by Jo Walton\n<li>Lips Touch by Laini Taylor\n<li>The Sentinel Mage by Emily Gee\n<li>Troubled Waters by Sharon Shinn\n<li>Blackout and All Clear by Connie Willis<\/ul>\n<p>I don&#8217;t remember what films I have seen other than the ones this week&#8230;I don&#8217;t know why I don&#8217;t keep track of them each year!<\/p>\n<p><b>Best musical discoveries in 2012<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Of Monsters and Men\n<li>Kina Grannis\n<li>Beth Hirsch\n<li>Kate Voegele\n<li>Imagine Dragons\n<li>Maia Sharp\n<li>Priscilla Ahn\n<li>Stiftelsen\n<li>Sophie Ellis-Bextor\n<li>Sarah Slean\n<li>birdpaula\n<li>Mariha\n<li>Yuna\n<li>Annika Moa\n<li>Pentatonix\n<li>Charlene Kaye<\/ul>\n<p><b>Some manageable goals for 2013<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Walk Walk Walk!!\n<li>Possible family houseboat vacation in England\n<li>Getting a new bed and a new washing machine<\/ul>\n<p>It&#8217;s 2 hours to midnight&#8230;we&#8217;ve got sparkling juice, sparklers and poppers to usher in the new year with. May 2013 bring you kindness, love, comfort and a sense of accomplishment!<\/p>\n<p><font size=\"-2\">(Drop cap courtesy of Jessica Hische&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/dailydropcap.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Daily Drop Cap<\/a>)<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>e left snowy Sweden a week and a half ago, when the snow was melting and the rain was coming down&#8230;to come to Michigan for the holidays, where it was relatively warm and still green. A couple of days after we arrived, the snow came, too and it&#8217;s been a real winter wonderland ever since&#8230;a true white Christmas. My sister and her family joined us at my mom&#8217;s and the festivities included a huge party 2 days before Christmas with many of my cousins and other relatives, 2 college friends and their families and one friendly internet psycho (hi thehula!)&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[4,14,27],"class_list":["post-2159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-beinglizardek","tag-goodthings","tag-holidaze"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/lizardek.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/lizardek.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/lizardek.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lizardek.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lizardek.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2159"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/lizardek.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2159\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4198,"href":"http:\/\/lizardek.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2159\/revisions\/4198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/lizardek.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lizardek.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lizardek.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}