2016 Recap

Before I set my goals for 2017, I'd like to take a quick look back on 2016. Again, I wish I could look through my blog posts from last year, but there isn't much there. I'm really hoping that being off for a year means I'll be blogging much more in 2017 - especially of the day-to-day things that I most enjoy looking back on.

Anyway, here are some of the highlights from 2016:

• Obviously, the biggest highlight for me was getting pregnant and everything that went along with that. I've had a great pregnancy and all the love and support for our little man has been overwhelming. Our baby shower was incredible! Setting up our nursery has been so much fun (I'll have to share some photos of that real soon). Now we are just waiting (somewhat impatiently) for his arrival!
• Shows / events from 2016:
• January: Mozart Juniper Symphony (TSO)
• January: Niagara-on-the-Lake Ice Wine Festival
• April: David Gilmour concert
• April: Hewlitt Plays Bach (TSO)
• April: Yoga Retreat with mom in the Muskokas
• September: apple picking
• I signed up for, studied and passed my SOCRA certification.
• We cleaned up the backyard and Pat built me a raised bed for growing herbs and veggies.
• We went to a few birthday parties, backyard BBQs and Christmas parties; I went to Pat's cousin's baby shower and out for drinks with co-workers; we visited family and had family visit us.
• We took an epic road trip to the East Coast in July... something I never blogged about. Here are two lovely photos from the very first evening, taken somewhere in Vermont:

I kept a travel journal of this trip, so perhaps I will find time this year to blog all the incredible photos we took on our adventures.

Lastly, here's a look back on what I was reading in 2016:

1. Dai Sijie - Balzac and the Little Seamstress
2. Vladamir Nabokov - Lolita
3. Sylvia Plath - The Bell Jar
4. George R.R. Martin - A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms
5. M.L. Stedman - The Light Between Oceans
6. Helen Edwards and Jenny Lee Smith - My Secret Sister
7. Kim van Alkemade - Orphan #8
8. Junot Diaz - The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
9. Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney - The Nest
10. Haruki Murakami - South of the Border, West of the Sun
11. Margaret Atwood - Stone Mattress (Nine Wicked Tales)
12. Phaedra Patrick - The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper
13. Jonas Jonasson - Hitman Anders and the Meaning of it all
14. Gabriel Garcia Marquez - Love in the Time of Cholera
15. Janet Fitch - White Oleander
16. Paul Collins - Sixpence House
17. Lian Hearn - Emperor of the Eight Islands
18. Joseph Heller - Catch-22
19. Jo Nesbo - Blood on Snow
20. Joseph Conrad - Heart of Darkness
21. Yaa Gyasi - Homegoing
22. Shilpi Somaya Gowda - The Golden Son
23. Rachel Joyce - The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry
24. Haruki Murakami - Hear the Wind Sing
25. Haruki Murakami - Pinball, 1973
26. Ransom Riggs - Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
27. Bret Easton Ellis - American Psycho
28. Neil Pasricha - The Book of Awesome
29. Karine Tuil - The Age of Reinvention
30. Lian Hearn - Autumn Princess, Dragon Child
31. Lian Hearn - Lord of the Darkwood
32. Julia Stuart - The Tower, the Zoo and the Tortoise
33. Haruki Murakami - A Wild Sheep Chase
34. Chad Kultgen - Men, Women and Children
35. Charlotte Wood - The Natural Way of Things
36. Andrew Sean Greer - The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells
37. Wilbur Smith - Golden Lion
38. Paulo Coelho - The Spy
39. Joseph Kim - Under the Same Sky
40. Tea Obreht - The Tiger's Wife
41. Shirley Barett - Rush Oh!

Legend:

• Book club books
• Books I borrowed

The books I would highly recommend are #21, Gyasi's Homegoing and #39, Kim's Under the Same Sky.

Next up: a recap of my 2016 goals and a rundown of my 2017 goals!