Celebrate!

Ruth Ayres has a link-up on Saturdays where people link to posts that are celebrations about their week. I love this reminder to celebrate every week.

Here are things that I celebrated over winter break:

San Francisco

We were able to spend time with family in California. We had a fantastic time together on Christmas Eve and enjoyed a party with friends on Christmas Day. We also had perfect weather for our trip to San Francisco and then again when we went to Monterey and Carmel. Some of my happiest childhood memories are of my family climbing around tide pools in southern California and I couldn't help but remember those special moments with my family as we all made new memories at the ocean last week. 

Some of the critters we were able to find in the tide pools and on the beach

Part of a group of crabs we saw scuttling around

Sand piper

Sea anemone

Purple sea urchins

I saw the whale with my eyes, but had trouble catching it with the camera.

I loved the fun trees.

** I had plenty of reading time during my flights and the long drives we had for our day trips. Initially, I was using a small suitcase, but realized that I couldn't fit the 9 books I was planning to take so I packed a larger duffle instead. That was good since I purchased 12 more on the trip (at a friends of the library sale), got two as presents, and my mother-in-law had finished the book she borrowed from me in September so I had 24 books to pack for the trip back home. ;)  If you wondered, I read 8 of the books I packed for the trip in addition to two more novels and 13 picture books along the way.

** The #WriteDaily30 challenge concluded. This was hosted by Linda Urban. While I missed a few days along the way, it was great to have incentive to write each day in December. I am happy to have been a part of the group.

** Today I was finally able to go back to Zumba after two months of physical therapy. Moving to the music with a fun group was a wonderful way to celebrate the morning.

** I looked back at the goals that I posted on January 1, 2014. I met all of them! I started a coding club at school last year. I also expanded our Hour of Code activities this year. I worked on helping my students become more independent about selecting books. We had a great time with World Read Aloud Day. I also had a summer checkout this year for the first time. I was able to have the library open for two hours on Mondays five times during the summer for students. I exercised frequently this year and kept a log. I ran about 450 miles though my injury in October kept me from hitting the 500 that I planned. I ran a half marathon and complete a RAGNAR relay race to the Twin Cities. I got to Zumba a ton too. Mission accomplished. Now to get busy on my goals for this year.

I hope you had many things to celebrate in the past week or two. My timer just went off and I can smell the loaf of bread I just baked. I think I forgot to mention all of the amazing food that we have eaten over the holidays. Yum. Lebkuchen is the food of the gods - especially Aachener printen. We also had my mother-in-laws most excellent Christmas cookies and lots of other treats for our tastebuds. I'm off to have a piece or two of fresh bread. Luckily I exercised this morning.