holiday greetings, day 29...

Today, December 29th, is another of those rare days in December without a national holiday but it is the 148th anniversary of the invention of the bowling ball. That said I will do my annual "year in review" post of my favorite posts from 2010 with each month's header photo. Follow the links in order to see the actual post I mention.
In January, I went outside one day to capture the beauty of hoar frost. Those little ice crystals in the shapes of delicate little leaves are always one of my highlights of winter.
In February, I not only showcased the resident woodpeckers in my header but I did a comparison post highlighting the differences between the downy and hairy woodpeckers.
March saw Jeff & I traveling to Texas for our annual "finding spring" cycle trip. The beauty of Texas in the spring was only overshadowed by the kindness of strangers as a wonderful small town mechanic named Joe, went above & beyond to help out 2 cycling travelers.
April finally brought spring to my Minnesota garden and I enjoyed tulips in a whole new way after viewing their interior kaleidoscopes of color. Of course, I can't forget the return of some of my favorite migrating birds.
In May, a rainy day gave me time off from gardening and I showed some raindrop covered blossoms and more of my favorite spring birds.
June brought tours of the garden, clematis meet & greets and a fun outing to a local WWII era air show.
July is peak bloom season in my garden and I took you through a early July garden walk in part one, part two, part three and part four.
August was a busy month with weddings every single weekend. Our family had a blast traveling to California for our nephew's wedding and enjoyed some beach time viewing sea stars at low tide. While the family trip was my personal highlight, I got the most comments from readers on the monarch migration photos.
September was spent doing a lot of weekend camping. It is my favorite time of year for camping with warm days and cool nights. On this particular trip we saw beautiful sunsets, deer & buffalo.
October was a very emotionally hard month for our family. We went through finding out there were problems with our unborn grandson, to a fatal diagnoses, then Ethan's birth and burial. The same week Ethan was diagnosed, Justin was diagnosed with cancer - there are no posts without emotional reminders for me to highlight this month.
November brought the new sized header layout and to carry our family through trying times we purposely worked on developing an attitude of gratitude by looking for 3 small things a day to be grateful for. I challenged readers to do the same.
Sometimes finding something to blog about during our long winters is hard so I spent the month of December finding unusual holidays to celebrate. While the month is not quite over I can honestly say that spending time with my family over the holidays is definitely the highlight of my month. On the birdwatching front, I would say it was the visit from the great horned owl.

Holiday greetings to all - may your day be spent with thoughtful reflection as mine as been.