Well, as years have gone past, I've always done a yearly wrap-up (see 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008). You, dear reader, don't get out of it that easily - here's my wrapup of 2009 for your reading displeasure :)

I usually review my goals, which I will again towards the end of this post, however, 2009 can easily be summed up as the "Year of being Dad". Upon reflection, I got the most joy, reward, challenge and emotional highs and lows from being a Dad this year. I spent an amazing year with Aurora and welcomed Atticus into my life and did it very comfortably - being "Dad" never felt so right. I loved playing the role of father to both of them and 2009 certainly solidified my life's purpose - to be the very best Dad I can be to both of them - to love them unconditionally and help shape them into the brilliant people they will both be. I could end this blog post on that note, but of course, I'm not going to :)

Also staying at a high level, the highlights of my year were as follows (in no particular order);

• OBS. Wow, I had a FUCKING BALL at OBS this year. I love my job. I love my company. There is far too much to sum it up in a single (or even few) points. I just genuinely feel like this is the place for me. It's different to SDM (which I also loved dearly), it's a progression, and I've drunk the kool-aid - I'm onboard for the ride. It's not without it's challenges and concerns of course, but as far as the perfect place to spent 40 to 50 hours a week, I've found it (for me).
• Concerts. I saw NIN, the Soundwave festival, Bodyjar (their final tour!), Slayer, Megadeth, Opeth, Dream Theater, Lamb of God and Devildriver. A "quiet" year in comparison to years gone by, but a great mix of concerts, and upon reflection a fistful of metal there :)
• The kids names. I seemed to talk a lot about Atticus and Aurora's names this year to people, and every time I did I was absolutely proud as punch of both them and their names. Atticus is such a cool little dude, his name suits him well.
• I discovered Black Hockey Jesus. No, I'm not joking, and please note I did say Black Hockey Jesus, not the other dude. This blog (and the few blogs / twitter accounts he has also run in the past) have just really hit a note with me. I've loved reading each and every entry he's made
• We (Aurora and I) went to the footy a few times. That was pretty fun, she certainly enjoyed, as did I, when Collingwood eventually won...
• I played guitar for Aurora's kinder, only a few weeks ago actually. It was a wonderful experience that I hope she or I don't forget anytime soon.
• Sitting by myself in the summer sun at a cafe in Beale St, Memphis at 2pm on a Friday having a club sandwich, chips and a cold beer. One of the happier moments of this year for sure. The atmosphere was one of opportunity, vibrancy and fantastic music. Hard to explain, but I had overall I had an ace holiday in Memphis this year.
• Surprising Steph with her iPhone. This was one of my moves of the year I'd say - I kept it well under wraps and she was absolutely shocked when she received it.

And the lowlights were few and far between (thank goodness). They were;

• Without question, my lowest point this year was hearing of a 5 year old girl being thrown off the Westgate bridge by her father. It still (seriously) breaks my heart to think of it, and I certainly can't talk about it anymore.
• Black Saturday, and it's aftermath. It was just so overwhelming - emotionally and literally. So shocking.
• Aurora seriously ill in hospital. Holy shit it was scary. I can still picture her in that bed, just so listless and "not herself"

So, here's the review of my 2009 goals;

• Goal: Give Steph the love and attention she deserves.
• Check: I think I scored pretty well on this front this year. I certainly amazed her with the iPhone, but I also took time this year to better connect with her - also on the parenting front. I'd like to give her another shout-out now. She's an awesome, amazing, talented human being who I love just a little more each day :)
• Goal: Sort out the garden at the new house.
• Check: The garden is sorted! It's awesome. I haven't put up any photo's unfortunately (however I'd like to think that I was too busy actually looking after the garden than to take photos...)
• Goal: Work on losing some weight and getting in better physical shape.
• Fail!: Yep, nothing happened on this front. Even though the scales say differently, I reckon I've put on weight this year.
• Goal: Make the conscious decision and/or commitment; Vegan or not?
• Check: After much procrastination and knowing what I wanted to do anyway, in July I read Peter Singer's book, "The Ethics Of What We Eat" and made the decision to go vegetarian. 5 months into it, I'm loving it. I feel a great deal better for having made the jump. Whether or not I make the next jump to Vegan remains to be seen, but I'm proud and happy to say I'm a vegetarian.
• Goal: Ride the wave that will be the next Neumann in our house.
• Check: Definitely coasted into the shore on this one. Atticus was a joy to have around (note, he was challenging at times, no doubt about that, but overall parenting has been much easier the second time around)
• Goal: Continue teaching and learning the lessons of life with Aurora.
• Check: As with Atticus, life with Aurora has been so joyful this year. She's made me a better person, taught me things about myself and I adore seeing and helping her become the person she is.
• Goal: Make an impact on OBS, and have as much fun as possible doing it :)
• Check: I moved into the General Manager role and ran around the office in a gorilla suit. Enough said I figure :)
• Goal: Spend some quality time with the Soesters.
• Check: Both Danyse and Marc made it over (separately) during the year to spend some time and I had a few trips to Adelaide as well. Although we didn't quite get quantity, I'd like to think we got quality :)
• Goal: Keep blogging.
• Check: I kept blogging - with 90 posts this year (or about 7.5 posts a month). Not too bad - certainly not as much as years gone by, but I was happy with the output.
• Goal: Don't start smoking again
• Fail!: Well, I've had many more cigarettes than I planned this year. I'm going to make a much more concerted effort in 2010.
• Goal: Hopefully get along to the MS Worldwide Partner Conference again in July (this year in New Orleans).
• Check: Done and done. I had an awesome time, and a great little break in Memphis afterwards as well.
• Goal: Keep playing guitar
• Check: I've played a lot of guitar this year, including a gig at Aurora's kinder, and countless "Happy Birthdays" at work. At home though, I think I've averaged playing at least 3 or 4 times a week, very happy with it. In fact, I think I've improved this year considerably I'm happy to say.
• Goal: Start a habit of posting songs I've written and recorded to my blog.
• Check: I can happily say I've posted 11 entries with songs this year (often with multiple versions/songs on them). Still a lot more to go to get through the back-catalogue :)
• Goal: Win the lottery (Division one).
• Fail!: I think I won Division 4 twice, which probably equated to a grand total of $60 or something. You gotta dream, eh? :)

All in all, I'm pretty happy with my achievements this year. I've got to improve my health... maybe that'll come up in my goals for 2010... but you'll have to tune back into the blog again in a few days to see :)

As I look back on 2009, I'm a happy and content man. Home and work kicked ass for me. Personally I grew and learned a stack of new things about myself. Compared to the challenges of 2008, 2009 was a great year. But that's where my content stops - bring on a bigger, brighter, brilliant 2010!

Love to all my family and friends,

Andy