Monthly Musings: 2021 Wrap Up/New Year's

One of my favourite linkups of the month is Holly and Patty's Monthly Musings. This month is all about wrapping up 2021 and looking at New Years' traditions. While I have done a bit of looking back on 2021 already, there were some new questions here I wanted to answer. Also, welcome to "Natasha is on vacation and can't get posts together in a timely manner, thus is posting at 1pm." Hahaha!!!

1) Favourite moments of 2021

I wrote about my favourite moments of 2021 for #AMonthofFaves here so I'm just going to direct you back to that post. Spoiler alert: Most of my favourite moments happened after June when we could do way more things in person.

2) Favourite vacations/trip of 2021

We only took two vacations in 2021 and they were both to visit my parents in Saskatchewan. We spent two weeks here in the summer and about a week and a half around Christmas. The summer trip was filled with family, a bit of Saskatchewan sightseeing, and lots of fun activities on the yard. The Christmas vacation was spent eating lots of amazing food, a lot of relaxing, and not much else. They were both amazing in their own ways.

3) Do you make New Year's Resolutions? Do you want to share yours?

I don't tend to make resolutions for the whole year. Each month I try to set "monthly goals" instead. Those goals got away from me in the busy-ness of our fall but I will likely be posting a monthly goals post again next week. Let's just say the start of a new year always inspires me to do better.

4) Did you have a word/phrase for 2021? Do you have one for 2022?

I haven't jumped on the "word/phrase of the year" train. However, I would say a word/phrase for me has been "survive/make it through/hang on."

5) Favourite fashion trend from 2021.

Well, you all know how fashionable I am (HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!) but I would say my favourite item from 2021 was my denim shorts, followed closely by my pineapple shirt.

6) Favourite phase of 2021.

My favourite phase of 2021 was the fall when so many things got to happen in person again!!! We got to go to church, school, dance, and Blue Jays' games!!! It was such an exciting time of year!

7) Biggest surprise of 2021.

This was not a happy surprise, but the biggest surprise (shock) for me was that our kids never went back to in person school after our delayed March Break. I really thought they'd be able to finish out the school year in person and I was so sad that they couldn't.

In a happier surprise, I was also shocked at how quickly Sam, Dave, and I all got our second Covid vaccines in the spring. It took six weeks for our first shots to happen and then, within nine days in June, we all got our second shots.

8) Stay in or go out on New Year's Eve?

As a kid we always had a big party with family friends. So the only time we'd stay home was if we were hosting. Usually the party would last for a couple of days!

Now, we just celebrate with our family of four and we stay in. Sometimes, we don't even stay up until midnight.

9) Stay up until midnight or crash early?

It kind of depends on the year. This year, if all goes according to plan, I will definitely be crashing early :)

10) New Year's Day -- football, stay in bed, or binge 'n chill?

For a couple of years, I ran the Resolution Run 5K on New Year's Day. However, that's been cancelled for the past couple of years. I'd love to do something like that again. Usually we just chill at home. This year, we might make our snow people display again. We shall see...

Thanks to Holly and Patty for hosting such a great blog party! I look forward to joining in on Monthly Musings again in 2022.