Happy Holidays and Year-end Thoughts

Published December 24th, 2008

Wow, December 24th is upon us! We were busy dealing with a health scare with one of the dogs in our extended family over the last week, and have completely lost track of time. Thankfully, for now, everything seems to be okay, and we have a whole evening to wrap presents, catch our breath, and get ready for 4 straight days of family and holiday craziness!

I want to take this opportunity to wish you and everyone you care about a safe and happy holiday. No matter what your faith, and what your family situation is, I hope you have the chance to spend some true quality time with the people and animals you love, and give yourself a break as well. While the holidays are definitely a time to visit with parents, children, in-laws, and the like, they are also some of the very few days we have off during the long, cold, dark, winter. Don’t forget to set aside a bit of time for yourself so that you can re-charge, and go back to work in a few days with the good attitude you’ll need to get you through the winter.

For those of you that are working over the holiday, including my own brother–thank you for your hard work taking care of, and serving others while everyone else is off enjoying the holidays. I know what it’s like to work over the holidays, so I have a special appreciation for those who work in the service industry, and those who dedicate their lives to keeping us safe and healthy every day of the year.

This is also a great time to look back on the past year. On December 18th, Value For Your Life celebrated its first blogiversary! I honestly was so busy dealing with getting everything sorted out for an emergency referral for my parent’s dog, that I completely forgot. I am not forgetting now. Getting this site up and running has been a huge step out of my comfort zone, and it’s felt really good to do something new, help others, and see some success. I have to admit that I’ve had to face some new challenges with the site since staring a job with a very long commute where I’m gone for 12 hours a day. There are so many things I want to do, but so little time.

I really care about this site, and I want it to have the opportunity to grow and get an even greater readership, so in the new year, I plan on making some changes, but maybe in small increments. Where the blog is concerned, I’m going to have to change and adapt to my schedule. I may even change the length of some of my articles so that I can post a little bit more often instead of having to find a few hours to get one longer post ready every week. I will take a poll in the new year as see what my loyal readers would like to see as well.

Some topics to look forward to in 2009 will include the rest of the series on My 25% Grocery Savings Rule In Action, how my cash-only experiment went, and a look into my life-changing trip to the Galapagos Islands. I appreciate your emails, and although it’s a hard topic to write about because it’s so close to home, I will write more about my experiences as a veterinarian, and more importantly the human-animal bond.

Well, 2008 has had its ups and downs, but certainly has been a year of great personal growth, and I am thankful for that. I am thankful that you come to this site, and that you take the time to comment and send emails. I am also thankful for the great life I have, in large part to the wonderful support system that I have. Take care, stay safe, and I will see you in 2009.

Sincerely,

Amanda

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