And just like that, 2017 is gone.

Poof. I don’t think a year has gone by more quickly for me. I just finished reading my tribute to 2016 on Facebook, and it was a doozy.

“Well 2016 was oh so bitter, but oh so sweet as well. As much as I joke about 2016 being the absolute worst (just like everyone else!) it was also one of the best. It’s easy to dwell on the bad from 2016, so let’s all focus on the great of 2016. Here is my year in review, including some of the bitter points because they made 2016 what it is: We rang in the new year as an engaged couple. Matt and I found an awesome brewery close to home. We moved out of a crappy little apartment into our first home. We went to Wrestlemania and Matt cried when one of his idol wrestlers came out. He also cried when his Cubbies won the World Series. We made a million and two trips home to spend time with family and friends and celebrate all of our engagement milestones. We all lost our best Fred and had our worlds turned upside down within a matter of a month. Work treated me very well and I earned a hefty raise. Matt turned our home into DB&B with delicious bbq and beer. I visited Denver for the first time and was reunited with an old friend. We filled our home with family for Thanksgiving and gave daddy a Gulf Coast send off. And best of all I married my best friend and became a Wisniewski!! (Though not officially on paper yet.. Technically I’m still Harte. But soon that will change.) Please be gentle, 2017, and give us nothing but luck, love and happy memories we can reminisce on at this time next year 😊”

Well here I am, as it is already that time of year to reminisce on the memories of 2017. Honestly, we got very lucky this year, and I’m okay with that. Last year was a beast of a rollercoaster, so this year actually turned out to be a nice cool down from 2016. This was the first full year without my best Fred, and I’m heartbroken as ever. We began by ringing in the Irish New Year, and then went out for our first New Year celebration as a married couple. We celebrated Matt’s 29th birthday. We saw Willie at the Houston Rodeo. I visited San Antonio for the Texas Library Conference and jumped up on stage at Coyote Ugly more than one time… We explored more of what Houston has to offer and discovered a new favorite brewery. Matt quit his miserable job and opened up Dixie’s Home Maintenance! I got a rad new hair-do and Matt has never looked finer with his head of hair. Sister got engaged and we’re thrilled to welcome Paulie to the family! But he’s not the only one we welcomed to the family.. Luci Joy made her appearance and was hands down one of the highlights of the year. We smoked a LOT of meat at DB&B, and drank a lot of beer. I had an idea to “just build up a portion of that half wall and put in a sliding barn door to close off the bathroom from our bedroom.” We then began a complete bathroom remodel. That bathroom remodel was interrupted by a little storm called Harvey, and we saw a lot more water than we should ever see in some places.  We had no damage or flooding to the house and counted our blessings! We finally took our honeymoon/anniversary trip to Jamaica and it changed our lives. We had a lot of visitors to Texas (thanks, everyone, for coming!) I enjoyed a tata on the beach with dad one year after he passed. We finished said bathroom remodel. We made our annual ACL Fest trip. I had blue hair. Dixie saw snow for the first time! (And it was in Houston.. weird.) I decided to pick up where I left off with my crochet adventures. Matt decided to make a lot of changes for the better, and the end of the year has turned into a resolution of happiness. Oy.. what am I missing? We have a lot of high hopes and plans for 2018. 2017 was the year of “please be gentle” and it sorta was; but tomorrow begins the year of “don’t disappoint!” Bring it, 2018!

Happy New Year, friends! Cheers to a great year!