The Hit List -- Not That Kind, Silly

The year's end inspires a singular sort of melancholy. In wrapping up 2010, however, I'm feeling more like Dick Clark than Barbara Walters so I'll just list the hits in my best Top-40 Style.

10.Favorite New Habit: Spending Saturday mornings with Naomi in my bed reading books. One of us makes a plate of apples and cheese to munch on. I doze in and out of sleeping for another 40 minutes.

9.Favorite Phrase: Less is not more, more is more, and more and more is even better!

8.Garden Favorite: Fresh Salsa (properly pronounced: Sals-ahhhh!)

7.Work Favorite: I'm a goody-goody. Always have been. I'm the grown up version of the curly haired girl who sat in the front row and always raised her hand in class. The one who bobbles her head with glee when she provides the right answer. As I walked back to my cubicle after my performance appraisal this year, there was some head bobbling.

6.Parent Group Favorite: The Prescott Walk-a-ton. The very air around this event felt charged with positive energy. I'd say Naomi spoke of the occasion from Cloud 9, but she couldn't see Cloud 9 from how high she was. Plus the event raised a lot of money for the outdoor classroom a group of Prescott Parents have actively pursued.

5.Favorite Car Music: What's The Rumpus? by Gaelic Storm, though, depending on the weather, it might be Munich by Corine Bailey Rae.

4.Favorite Musical Surprise from Naomi: She came home from a weekend cowgirl camp singing this song. I thought my stomach might explode from laughing so hard.

3.Favorite Television Find: Warehouse 13 or The Closer for completely different reasons.

Warehouse 13 is good, geeky fun that I'm not embarrassed to watch with my kid.

The Closer is a show that started with a female lead character and (thankfully) has avoided the common pitfall of female lead shows. Commonly the interesting, competent, compelling female lead character gets sidelined for the "perfect man" search, or the "oh, work and family...it's just so hard!" story arc. I'm four seasons in and the female lead (beautifully portrayed by Kyra Sedgewick) is still the central character. Love it.

2.Favorite Board Game: Nab-It

1.Favorite Home Improvements:

• Wood floor restored to the upstairs bedroom of the house (January)
• Cabin has siding (September)
• Cabin has a deck (July)