Buh-bye, 2012. You were good to us.

My Christmas Dinner Fortune Cookie:
"Consume Less, Share More, Enjoy Life."

Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a safe time merrily being merry. The last couple of years we had decided to go paperless in our yearly Christmas Holiday Letter. This year it seemed more difficult to get to. This isn't necessarily due to being lazy or even too busy. I found myself wondering why I was doing it. Then I put my ego in check. (No, Dani, not EVERYONE follows every single thing you post on Facebook, and not everyone you would send this too is even on Facebook! Get over yourself, lady.) So let us commence the yearly family brag!


Sam (as she likes to be known now) is 12 going-on complete stereotypical teen girl. She is the one who reminds me the most of myself at her age, and with 80's colors and clothing being back in style, it just hits me harder. Bright pants, big curls in her hair, and her favorite boy-band all over her bedroom wall (for her it is One Direction, for me it was Duran Duran). She also entered middle-school this year, and now I have both kids in the same place- thank goodness! I was worried after so many years of Montessori the transition to a more rigorous education would be a problem, but she did just fine, and continues to shine in the classroom as well as outside of it. She is looking forward to trying her hand at archery in the spring, and hopefully getting to the 1D Store in NYC sometime this year (that's the above-mentioned boy band).

Allison, now 15 and a sophomore in High School, could pretty much just live on her own at this point. Well, if she had a car and a job. She has always been the independent one, and at times it is really hard to forget she is still so young. Now that she has reached 15 and 6 months, there is a drivers manual lying around somewhere. She also continues to excel in her studies, and now the focus is beginning to turn to where she might end up for college. On top of school she is still playing soccer (and scoring some goals for the team!), and also keeping her steady archer's arm. A new development this year is a boyfriend, which I think has been a little harder on Bret than me. He's a wonderful young man, and it often reminds me of Bret and myself way back when.

Bret continues to work for Intel, and has also kept up the continuing education planning for other employees. He has been teaching and attending classes this year too. There has been a lot of discussion this year about making some changes, as he really wants to do something more fulfilling, or even switch places with me and stay at home for awhile. He also received a small bite from the athletic bug, and participated in his first Sprint-Triathlon this past April. He achieved his goal-time, and it was a lot of fun to see him accomplish this feat! I don't think he's interested in doing more, but I secretly hope he does.

As for myself, I always have 50 things going on at once, and 2012 was no exception. I ran another half-marathon, a couple of 5k's, the yearly Pat's Run with the family, and a 10k in Boston with my foster-sister Katie, who also joined us for Pat's Run. April was actually a big month. Not only did Bret run his tri, and we had more people join us for Pat's Run, I also turned 40. For the most part, I absolutely loved saying goodbye to another decade. I did a 40-to-40 blog series, had a roller skating party, and saw the musical American Idiot. I also led the organizing committee for TechPhx, which was a first for me (I was always on the committee but never leading). That was a great experience, and I look forward to doing it again this year. I also found myself looking for a job this year, which didn't work out so well. So I decided to start my own business! It's been so busy I put my political podcast on hiatus for the time-being, but one of the wonderful things about podcasting is you can pick it back up whenever you want!

As a family, it wasn't a big travel year. We managed to spend a nice weekend up at the family cabin with Bret's parents, and spent a week in Boston over fall break. The girls did more traveling on their own- they went off to Iowa to visit their Nanas in July, which was Sam's first flight sans parents. She loved it! Right after that, Allison went off to spend a week with Bret's sister in San Francisco. Though I am sad we didn't make our summer trek to the east coast, I am glad the girls did some exploring on their own. We also stayed home for Christmas too- my brother Henry and his family joined us for the holiday! It was great meeting his 4 daughters for the first time, and getting to know all of them better. We don't see them very often, so it made for a very special holiday.

So that is it. 2012 in a few paragraphs. I don't make resolutions, but I do enjoy looking back and seeing what a good year it has been for the Cutler Clan. I always try to be grateful for what we have, and not sweating the small stuff... too much. I'm not big on resolutions, but I do hope that you take each day of 2013 in stride, so you can also look back and smile at all you've accomplished come the end of the year!