2016 Drop the Mike!

Wow what a year!  Prince, Gordie Howe, and of course Ali, all legends of my childhood moved into memory.  The curse of the Cubs has been broken, Cleveland's championship drought is over and Tiger returns to golf still searching for his game he lost in the backseat of a car behind the IHOP.  In Canada we elected the charismatic, handsome son of a political legend speaking about the "sunny way" only to watch our neighbour choose to go with the king of the comb over right out of tabloids and celebrity reality tv who speaks about walls and grabbing female private parts.  It would be an understatement to say 2016 has been an unpredictable ride.

I am not sure how to feel about 2016 on a personal level.  For our family it was a great year in so many ways.  The boys are doing great in school and their activities.  Graeme's team won the BCSPL league championship and he has decided to attend UNBC and signed with the Timberwolves for next year making his mother and me very happy that he will be at home.  Connor had a great year of soccer and basketball participating in multiple provincial championships and summer games.  Marla and I are both enjoying our jobs which is nice to say after 22 years we still find our profession challenging and rewarding.  Our down time, as usual, has been filled with summer at the lake, school holidays in Mexico and a lot of sports in between.  However, just like the larger world it seems like there has been a fair amount of unpredictability.  This has lead to a weird vibe for 2016 that has meant it has been difficult to let my mental guard down.  Not sure why this has been and it is something many of my friends have also expressed, just a feeling like everything around them has been a little off.  Maybe this is a function of a social media world in which it is hard to turn things off or maybe a function of moving through middle age.  As the year winds down we are getting ready to head off to Mexico with good friends, I look at my oldest son heading into his final semester of high school and my youngest loving life I am reminded 2016 was a good one and 2017 should even be better!