Welcome in to a brand new year! Resolutions, anyone? Mine will be the same as last year: put down more roots, get my backside to the gym more often. Find some new challenges. Work on getting better.
 
I always appreciate this first week – like the days after Labour Day – as a chance to reset my sails and look to the future. Of course, it’s often a time for reflection, too, which is sometimes the best way to decide how to move forward. Can’t drive safely without the odd glance in the rearview mirror, can we?
 
I’ve lots of pictures and stories to share with you as the days and weeks go on, but I wanted to start this new year with a funny bit of trivia that I came across. According to a study that came out on January 2nd last year, the day that women in North America are most likely to get pregant is…wait for it…TODAY: January 2nd. They’ve even narrowed it down to what time most conceptions will take place and that is 10:36 pm.
 
Why today? Well, the research suggests that it’s because all of the chaos of the holiday season is finally behind us. Couples have some time to themselves back in their own beds, they’re still in that nice Christmas afterglow and voilà! A baby.
 
Now here’s the part that really got my attention: the average pregnancy lasts 38 weeks. So if you do the math, what you come up with is that the most likely date for babies conceived January 2nd to be born is…drum roll…September 26th.
 
That would be me. My exact birthday. Hardly original, right?
 
Without conjuring too clear a picture (for my own good as well as yours), I think I’ve worked it all out with my dad coming home from a year or two posted up at the Defence Early Warning (or DEW) Line up in the arctic to stay with mom and my two siblings at my grandparents’ house in tiny Turner Valley. I guess one thing led to my mother and here I am! I always knew I loved these first few days of a new year, but I was never quite able to figure out why!
 
Here’s a picture of me with Dear Ol’ Dad on Christmas Eve at one of my sisters’ houses in Kelowna. We gathered, shared music (singing in three- or four-part harmony) and got some cuddle time with Dad’s great-grandson Dominic. Mom would have just loved hearing her four girls – and husband – singing together. Who knows? Maybe she did. Talk to you here tomorrow.