When I was growing up, my family moved a lot. By the time I was in Grade Ten I had attended ten different schools and we had moved fifty-six times on three different continents. This trend continued when I left home - I have five different universities on my undergrad transcript and added quite a few more addresses of my own. Just because we moved a lot didn't mean we got rid of stuff along the way. Au contraire - we are all (and I confess, I am the worst) pack-rats. By the time my parents, daughter, and I moved into a house in the country outside Victoria (my parents live upstairs), we had accumulated dozens and dozens and dozens of boxes of papers, books, albums, old toys, life jackets, camping gear, costumes, stuff, stuff, and more stuff, all of which has been stacked, untouched, in the basement for the last seven years or so.

This year, both my brothers are here for Christmas (one from Tokyo, the other, with his two small children, from California). What possessed the Tokyo Bro to suggest we make cleaning out the basement our family project this year, I can't imagine, but that is exactly what we have been doing for the past several days. What a job! But the treasures I've found! And the ludicrous junk! I've already tossed out eight - EIGHT!!! - garbage bags full of papers, magazines, brochures, maps, travel guides, etc. - and that's just the papery stuff. There is a mountain of ... other stuff ... destined for the dump and another sizeable heap destined for the Goodwill.

As a result of all this frenzied activity, I will not have to make a New Year's Resolution this year as I've taken care of the past several years' worth of resolutions in one fell swoop!


Happy New Year!