Hi guys! I hope you’re all doing well. Today is my birthday 🎉 and so I thought I’d take a look back at the past year.

I did this last year and I really liked looking back at my year, if I’m being honest I love looking back at past moments – I get so lost in nostalgia 😅

This past year has been something else, hasn’t it? This was definitely not how I saw spending my 26th year but here we are. I got to spend the first 4 months of my 26th year living like I used to, then the last 8 months have been the new norm of quarantine, social distancing and wearing masks.

I figured I’d start this post with some of the lowlights, as this year hasn’t been all peaches and rainbows as everyone knows.

Some lowlights:

🚫 With the hit of COVID I started working at home and boy was that a challenge at first, and if I’m being honest, kinda lonely – this was also very stress inducing, but I’d like to think I’m in a much better place with the whole working at home deal
🚫 Took a trip to the ER (not COVID related and I’m 100% fine) back in June – I had my first ambulance ride so that’s a memory I won’t forget
🚫 My Nonna (grandmother) passed away in late August (not due to COVID, but a funeral during COVID was very, very strange)
🚫 Just the overall dread and depression of the state of the world
🚫 I didn’t take my bike out at all this year – the year where bikes were a hot commodity, I didn’t touch mine once 😦

It’s been one heck of a year and I don’t want to dwell on the millions of feelings I’ve felt this year because I’m sure you’ve all felt them too so I’m trying to keep the lowlights short. Even though I didn’t get to do as much traveling as I’d like, or go to the concerts I had bought tickets for, I still did get to do a few things.

Here are some of the highlights of the year:

✨ Celebrated my 26th birthday with all of my best friends and my brother at the Rec Room
✨ Saw City and Colour for the second time with my brother last November

✨ Celebrated Christmas with family, but also with my best friends
✨ Went to Wonderland’s Winter Wonderland in December with two of my best friends

✨ Learned to start saying no
✨ Went to Niagara Falls in January with two of my best friends
✨ Discovered my love of driving (back in February – right before lockdown 😅)
✨ Discovered a love for basketball (mainly the Toronto Raptors – again back in February right before the NBA shut down 😅)
✨ Played a lot of Wii Sports with my brother (I got pretty good at bowling 😂)

✨ I got back into knitting
✨ Had backyard picnics with two of my best friends in June
✨ Rented a cottage in Georgina, Ontario for the weekend with two of my best friends in August
✨ One of my best friends’ got engaged!
✨ I tie-dyed for the first time since I was 12 with two of my best friends … noticing a trend here? 😅
✨ Had friendsgiving with, you guessed it, two of my best friends (this year I only have bubble friends)
✨ I also had Thanksgiving with my immediate family where I made pumpkin pie!

Bookish/blogging highlights:

📚 I was nominated for a book blogger award for the first time
📚 I celebrated 5 years on this blog in April, and 13 years of blogging overall in May
📚 I reached 1000 followers on the blog!
📚 I redesigned the blog a little bit – more to come next year!
📚 I became more active on bookstagram
📚 I bought more books this year than any previous year
📚 I also re-read the most books this year than any before
📚 I beta read my first book

I’m sure I’m forgetting something, but this is just a snapshot of the past year. I can only hope that 27 will be a better year than 26!