Some of my favourite things from 2021:
Song - Kiss Me More - Doja Cat ft. SZA
Movie - Promising Young Woman (with honourable mention to The Mitchells vs. the Machines)
TV Show - Formula 1: Drive to Survive (Netflix). We are full on F1 fans now.
Book - Where the Forest Meets the Stars by Glendy Vanderak
YouTube video - Hot Ones with Dan Levy
Meal - Lobster Roll at Capt. Kat's Lobster Shack in Barrington Passage, Nova Scotia
Drink - Whispering Angel Rosé
New Clothing - New Balance sneakers
Toronto Moment - Two of our major sports teams had to play in borrowed cities for part of 2020 and into 2021. The Raptors were in Florida and the Blue Jays were in Florida and then Buffalo. The city welcomed both of them back home finally this year and it was so great! I know people are still critical of having people in arenas/stadiums but having those teams back here felt great to me.
Canada Moment - We really got it together for the vaccine distribution and knocked it out of the park. It was a slow start but once we got going, people stood in line, made their appointments, and got it done. Sure, there are some dissenters out there, but as of this week we are over 87% for fully vaccinated individuals over age 12, with those 5 to 12 showing up for their shots too. We didn't make it political, despite a few best efforts from the Conservative party, and it has paid off.
House Thing - We didn't do much with the house this year but we did get new windows and a new side door. Our house had original windows in it and in 2016 we replaced most of them; this year we did the remaining windows, so no more frost on the inside of the windows when it gets below zero.
New Restaurant - Nodo. Not exactly a new restaurant but I had two amazing meals there this year in their outdoor seating space and it was lovely.
E Thing - In September when the kids went back to school we figured that E was getting too old to attend the YMCA before and after school programs (not that they aren't great but there were less kids his age) so we decided that he should walk to and from school each day. He has a watch so he knows how much time he has before the bell rings, he meets up with several of his friends to walk with, and it gives him some independence. He has never once complained about walking, even in the rain or cold. If you know E, he can be a bit scatterbrained and this was why I was worried about him walking, but he has done really well and I am proud of him!
Q Thing - Having sat beside Q for much of Junior Kindergarten online learning, I realized that if he is going to do something, it sort of needs to be his idea. Although he still does lots of block building at school, his writing and drawing has improved, and he is learning lots of French. He's done well being in an actual classroom.
Dave Thing - Dave finally joined a golf club this year and it has been great. For a few years he has hemmed and hawed over getting a membership and trying to decide which one to join, but he made his choice and signed up. He got out a bunch of times, met some new people, and enjoyed the club atmosphere (as much as he could given there are still several Covid restrictions). I got to golf with him one and a half times there (we got rained out the second time) and we got to eat on the patio several times.
