"Auld Lang Syne" and 2011

I fully intended to write this post and have it ready to post on my blog on New Year's Eve, but sometimes life just gets busy and I don't have enough time in the day. So, please excuse it for being a little bit late! The song Auld Lang Syne (as well as Hark! The Herald Angels Sing) always makes me think of the movie It's a Wonderful Life since those two songs are both near the end of the movie. LOVE that movie, so I just had to mention it in relation to the song Auld Lang Syne!

I love this version of the song, so take a listen while you read this post:

To be perfectly honest, I don't know the lyrics to Auld Lang Syne, and I have a hard time even remembering what the words "Auld Lang Syne" mean. Fortunately, my trusty friend "Google" can always shed a little light on obscure subjects such as this. Auld Lang Syne has many translations – "old long since," "long long ago," "time gone by" "old times, etc." I think my favorite translation, though, is "days gone by." I'm not sure why I prefer that translation over the others since they all mean the same thing, but I just like the way it sounds.

Here are a few of my thoughts about the days that've gone by in 2011:

• Staying hospital-free is always my number one goal, and at the risk of jinxing myself, I'm happy to report that I made it all year without being hospitalized or having any major health problems. (Actually, it's been almost 2 years since I was last in the hospital.) May the trend continue for 2012!
• I continue to blog and I wrote 257 posts in 2011. I enjoy writing about a wide variety of topics: what my family and I are up to, current events, my thoughts about living a nontraditional life, how I cope with trials, how I manage to stay positive when it would be easy to get discouraged, etc.
• I saw lots of movies this past year – 23 to be exact, thanks to many double features and even two triple features. (When some people hear about me spending hours at the movies just in one day they wonder how I do it hour after hour, but I just love, love, love movies so much, so it was lots of fun!) I was fully intending on seeing more movies this year since there were many movies I wanted to see that I didn't get around to, but when life gets busy there's unfortunately not always a convenient time to head off to the movies.
• I read 44 books this past year. Actually, let me clarify – I listened  to 44 books. I listened to 26 audio books and my mom read 18 books to me.

Family News:

• My younger sister Chandra got engaged this past January.
• My Aunt Cathie passed away on February 17, and my paternal grandmother passed away just over a month later on March 21. Cathie's death was unexpected as one day she was fine and the next day she was gone, but my grandmother's death was not at all unexpected since she'd been in poor health for many years.
• Two of my sisters had babies back-to-back in December of 2011. My younger sister Laura had a baby boy (David Alexander) on December 21, and my oldest sister Miriam had a baby girl (Victoria Marie) on December 22. This brings my niece/nephew count to 18 (11 nieces and eight nephews). I'm looking forward to spring of 2012 when I will have another niece and nephew! 

World News:

• Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was shot in the head on January 8. Six other people were killed.
• "The Royal Wedding" Prince William married Kate Middleton on April 29. My mom and I actually got up at 5 AM to watch the wedding. (It was fun and something I'm sure we'll remember for years to come.)
• Osama Bin Laden was found and killed on May 1. This was a huge deal since the search for Bin Laden had been on for years.
• Major unrest in the Middle East in places like Egypt and Libya. Lots of political unrest, protesting and rioting.

Weather News: There were so many bad natural disasters in 2011. I know these weren't the only disasters this year, but they are the ones that I recorded in my journal.

• 2011 was the sixth snowiest winter on record for St. Louis, Missouri, with 36.8 inches of snow. (This isn't a lot for some areas of the country/world, but it was a lot for St. Louis.)
• 6.3 magnitude earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand, on February 22
• 8.9 magnitude earthquake in Japan on March 11 which resulted in hundreds of aftershocks, many of them high magnitude aftershocks, as well as devastating tsunamis. This earthquake was the fifth most powerful on record since 1900.
• EF-5 tornado in Joplin, Missouri, on May 22. This was one of the deadliest tornados in the past 100 years as nearly 160 people killed.
• 5.8 magnitude earthquake in Virginia on August 23. Four days later Hurricane Irene hit the East Coast. (This was just two days before the sixth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.)
• 7.1 magnitude earthquake in Fox Islands, Alaska on September 2
• 7.2 magnitude earthquake in Turkey on October 23
  
  I wish everyone a safe, productive and happy 2012!