As the holidays yield to winter, I find myself in a pensive mood.  Doubt this is unusual, for me or most people, to reflect over the past year with a touch of melancholy.  In my case, there’s typically a stemmed glass within reach.  The girls have all returned to Colorado, leaving me behind in Texas to spend a few more weeks with my mom.

The moment my first daughter was born, like an epiphany, I knew my purpose in life.  Each trip home, spending quality time with family, reinforces the message.  Gollum doesn’t know the meaning of precious.  Waking up to a half dozen nieces and nephews each morning at my in-laws presented me with an over abundance of precious.  The silence is deafening now that they are gone.  Maybe I should have ran a daycare; I like watching kids play.

With one more day left in the year I’m starting to think of the future.  No big resolutions are coming to mind but I am going to stop responding to stupid facebook posts.  I thought I was doing good to keep my election comments limited to just one of my outspoken friends, but I’ve kept it up post-election with the Sandy Hook emotion.  I couldn’t help myself.  I’ve always been pro gun control and I could not believe the poor form expressed by gun advocates with their aggressive social network response to that tragedy.  I don’t care about their 2nd Amendment rights any more than the stats and reasons that I reply with.  I just care about how I feel on the topic.  That’s not going to change so I’m done talking about it and will just hope for positive social progress.

My running plans won’t change.  I’ll keep up most of the same.  I was able to register the other day for Moab and I’m set to run the Austin 3M Half Marathon in two weeks.  One thought I do have for a new years resolution is to start cooking from recipes in order to broaden my meal portfolio.  I’m not big on recipes generally but I do enjoy cooking.  Another thought is extending my trading savvy with options.  I traded options quite a bit this past year but I wouldn’t call it sophisticated.  I sold covered calls most months.  Great way to add a few points to my overall return but not very exciting otherwise.

I have a few thoughts on my job as well but that’s it.  Keep up my running.  Improve my cooking and investing tactics.  And cherish every moment with family.  Happy new years.