Happy New Year

I have had the most wonderful Christmas and New Year. It’s almost over, which is sad, though we still have our Argentine and Russian dates to mark on the evenings of 6^th and 7^th respectively.

I go back to the office Tuesday (4^th) and my little boy (now 7!) goes back to school the same day.

We enjoyed a really amazing family festive season. He got sad a little on Christmas morning and asked if we could go to his Mother’s memorial tree, which we did. Turns out he just wanted to say “Merry Christmas,” to her and after that he was fine. This year provided such a wonderful festive season that I could actually cry (yep, man point loss) thinking about it again. I’ve never felt happiness like I’m feeling it now.

Last night, before we left for our New Year meal (we had a family New Year too) my son came into mine and Chloe’s room asking,

“Dad, Mum... do I have to wear my shoes or can I wear my trainers?”

It was a simple question. But “Dad, Mum,” was something he’s never really put in a sentence like that referring to me and Chloe. I looked at her for some sort of instant reaction to find out whether she was comfortable with this. I had no need to doubt. She answered his question before I could:

“You should really wear your shoes with your smart pants, sweetheart.”

“Ok thanks! I thought so too.” And he trotted out. 

Then she cried. Happy tears, granted, but she cried. It was a pretty moving moment and we have both decided not to make a fuss of with our son. He’s obviously made a decision in his mind and we’re going to let it be, happily. He continued to refer to her as “Mum,” through the night for the most part and that has continued today. Today, she and him have gone bowling while my sister and I made some time for our Mother. We spent a couple of hours in the cemetery this afternoon. 

I don’t make resolutions at New Year. I just never have. Though this year I made something of a “to do,” and a “not to do” list, which I suppose kind of counts.

• -          Get married (of course)!
• -          Give my sister away ( not in a mean way, she is getting married too)
• -          Spend at least one weekend per month away with my Fiancee and my son

I have also decided to continue with my “limited online personal time” approach of the latter weeks of 2010. I decided, given how much time my business requires me to spent on the Internet in the office, that my personal time would not be eaten up by it. I have not logged in to Second Life in weeks, I let the freebie store parcel go... I never keep up with my SL blog. I have it on its own domain, www.pixelscoop.net,  with a good number of subscribers and a great history. But I don’t use it anymore. I am thinking I might donate the domain to an institution that does charitable work in Second Life, as it gets thousands and thousands of visits a week through searches for Second Life related things, so would be good for hosting a website of an organisation like that. Will look into that.

I will continue with this blog, now and again, but for the most part I think “down time,” from the Internet is doing me the world of good. And so, while it’s working, I’m sticking with it.

I hope you had an amazing and wonderful  Christmas and New Year and I hope all of your dreams and wishes for the coming 12 months are realised.

I raise a glass for you all.

Happy New Year.