Get out the fireworks, noisemakers, and pots and pans or just snuggle up on the couch with the tv tuned to the Rockin’ NYE show in Times Square … *a toast to Dick Clark’s memory* … . whatever works for you!

Celebrate all the good memories of 2012, move on from the not so good if you can, and welcome 2013 with hope and optimism.

I’m excited! I love to welcome in each new year and am forever grateful I have much to celebrate, like good health/a thriving family/wonderful friends/exciting plans. I hope you do too.

We also have a dear friend who is dying and will not see much more time here, let alone another year. We have spent many good hours with him and his wife through the holidays appreciating our moments together. His spirits and attitude are inspiring.

My husband’s brother and his family live in war-torn Aleppo, Syria where life is unimaginable to us right now. Amazingly, we can still talk to them on the phone most of the time but can do nothing more to help them at the moment. Nothing can get through. Each day brings fear and hardship. Their spirits and attitudes are inspiring.

Other extended family and friends are dealing with illness or difficulties. Their spirits and attitudes are inspiring.

Everyone reading this can tell similar stories and of course we all share in the pain of Newtown, Hurricane Sandy and other disasters. We marvel at the response of those whose spirits and attitudes are inspiring through it all.

Life.

This post is not meant to be a downer. I hope it is a reminder to celebrate the human spirit and to support each other and proceed together to make life better in whatever way we are able.

No matter what is being handed to us, the human spirit has a way of staying strong, seeing the positive, and working in whatever way, big or small, to remove the negative. So let’s grab on to this new year and vow to do whatever we can to make the world a better place.

Merci mille fois – thank you a thousand times, for the thoughts, the photos, the wisdom, the humour and most of all the friendship that we share in this amazing blogosphere community. I can’t wait to see what 2013 brings to us all. Onward!