I hope you all had a fabulous festive season!

I woke up this morning with a cold spot next to me where my hubs sleeps, which means the holiday is officially over. He’s off to work, so I have to get back to work too. At least, back to blogging.

I’ve kept busy over the past weeks, from taking on new hobbies to editing, while just chilling with the family in between. We went to Munich, saw Neuschwanstein Castle and the Bavarian Alps, cuddled in front of a fireplace and went to a zoo in the snow. The things toddlers will make you do. I’ll share the photos of our experiences on Wednesday, so tune back in for that.

Anyway, today’s post is to wish you the best for 2017. A lot of positive stuff happened last year, that’s true, but we lost many of our idols, including my grandmother. 2016 was an emotional mess for me – the first full year of living abroad. This meant tons of weird emotions and random angst. When I talk to friends and family, I hear the same kind of theme. Almost everybody had a notably tough year last year, filled with personal loss and challenges to the point where everyone just wanted the year to be over.

So, I hope 2017 will be a positive one, for all of us. The kind of year you always remember for the level of awesome involved, like the summer of ’69 (and I wasn’t even born yet back then 😛 ). A year chock-full of tolerance and love, understanding and graciousness – the kind where our faith in humanity will be restored daily. A year where we learn and grow, and discover new strengths we didn’t know we have if we fail. A year of success and trying new, intimidating things, or doing the things we’ve always wanted to, but were too scared to try. This year, I want to close my eyes and leap, in Elphaba’s words.

Let’s try to spread as much goodness around as possible, to make a difference, no matter how small.

See you on Wednesday.

Yolandie