{ Out With The Old! }

2007 was a year of great change and while I am always grateful for the waning and waxing of life's lessons, I embrace the coming 2008 with more enthusiasm than usual. I've grown up these last 12 months - and while I've been told most of my life that I seem more mature for my age - this year I have finally felt so. I look to the new year with a clarity and strength that I did not possess last year and look forward to the path ahead...come what may.

My financial footing is better than it has been in the past...I walk into 2008 with no credit debt, a smaller mortgage payment and a full slate of clients. I will for the first time in my life be funding an IRA, I have my anticipated taxes sitting in the savings account and I have only minor cosmetic projects around my former eternal remodel. We are planning our first family vacation in 12 years and our families are all healthy. We do have some impending hard times ahead, don't get me wrong. We have a few members of our "tribe" (aka close friends) who have challenges ahead and we'll be with them every step of the way, any way that we can. But all in all, as I sit in front of the fire tonight, with a glass of sparkling cider I will welcome the steps of 2008 upon my door's threshold, greet her warmly and invite in. I hope you do the same.