New Years resolution anyone???

Before I can have a resolution for the new year, I have to ask myself, "Where did Twenty Fourteen Go??"  I'm looking at my blog, finally, and asking myself this question.  Holy Toledo the year is just about up and I am just realizing that I don't have one entry this year.  I'm not happy about that, but it is what it is.  (Although I don't like that saying, I must say that I do use it more times than I wish.)

So what happened this year that I couldn't make one entry.  I certainly did some baking but I just didn't write about it.  Point blank.  That's it.  January started off a little rough as I had been having a swollen eye lid since April of 2013.  Every morning my eyelid would be swollen to some degree or another.  No issues with that.  As in no headaches, no pain, no blurred vision so I ignored my one and only symptom.  But come January of 2014 I decided to head to my opthomolgist.  She happened to notice during the exam that my left eye was bulging forward of my right.  Ever so slightly but nonetheless this was a sign of 'something'.  Long story short, after an MRI and CT scan, the results were numbing.  I had a mass behind my left eye that was pressing on my optic nerve, pushing my eyeball forward.  A meningioma tumor to be exact.

So after my own research on surgeons, I found a wonderful neurosurgeon at New York Presbyterian Hospital.  Part of the Columbia University Medical Center.  Dr. Michael Sisti.  After his review of my scans he assured me that I would be okay. Plain and simple he said he sees about 150 of these types of tumors a year and he looked at me very sincerely and told me that he understands that this is nerve racking for me, but for him "its a piece of cake".  And so on April 30th, 2014 I had surgery to remove the tumor.  Dr. Sisti had Dr. Michael Kasim assist him, as Dr. Kasim is a specialist in orbital tumors.  (Did you know the eyeball is considered an orbit in the medical word of terminology?)  Since part of the tumor was resting on the optic nerve, Dr. Kasim's role was to remove that section and Dr. Sisti took care of the rest.

I did come out of surgery feeling pretty good and I only stayed in the hospital for a day and a half after surgery.  Go figure.  They open the side of my skull, seek out the tumor, replace the 'hole' in the side of my head with a titanium mesh screen, close me up on a Wednesday and by Friday morning at 10am I'm recuperating on my couch at home.  Wow!  That's all I can say.

My recovery time went well.  Mostly getting through the ugly black eye and the bruising (which was the hard part as it was hard to look in the mirror for a few weeks) and then getting my energy level back up.  Jim was wonderful and took great care of me!  As well as my friends and family visiting!  I'm blessed.

So summer came and went, then the leaves started turning and autumn arrived with a new challenge for our family.   October brought some new issues in life as my father-in-law's health started to decline.  Our families time has been taken up with making sure he is comfortable and in his home, which is a good thing.  But he's 87 and his body is starting to give up on him.  Watching him over these past three months has been a life lesson for sure.  But it is life and life is a cycle that we all go through.  There's no stopping time.

My volunteer work at the Women's Center of Greater Danbury kept me busy too, and will continue to keep me busy into Twenty Fifteen as well.  As some of you may or may not know, I'm a trained counselor for the Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault hotlines as well as a co-faciliator of a self-esteem workshop and an anxiety workshop through the Center.  My volunteer work with them has been very challenging at times, but more so very rewarding.  Something I'm very proud of.

And yes, I did manage to bake a little.  Thanksgiving and Christmas brought my craft to the fore front.  Baking for my friends and family is always a pleasure.  And I did have some orders as well.  One huge order for Western CT Home Care, the agency here in Danbury that I contracted with to work the State of Connecticut flu clinics this fall.  (A little part time job that I enjoyed.)  They asked for cookie platters for their clients.  I was happy to oblige and so I provided 16 cookie trays, with my beautiful Pecan Bites, Pisatchio Lime Thins, Cocoa Cuts, Russian Tea Cakes and my Pine Nut Macaroons all wrapped beautifully in cellophane and tied with a festive ribbon!  I was very proud, I won't lie.

The easy part of the large order was preparing the batter and baking the cookies.  The more tedious and time consuming part was packaging them up for delivery.  But needless to say I kept my nose to the grindstone and managed it all in just one week.  My contact at Western CT Home Care was apologetic on getting to me last minute, but I told her that I would do it and by golly I did do it!  800 cookies total. Give or take 20 or so cookies.  It was a challenge but a challenge that I cherished, managed and completed with pride.

I do love baking cookies for my friends and family.  There's no doubt about that.  And sharing my cookies as often as I can is what I do.  Every time I bake up a batch of cookies from my Gourmet line, I say, "This is my favorite', but then I make another cookie and say "no, this is my favorite".  And it goes on and on.  I really don't have ONE favorite cookie that I bake, ALL of them are my favorite.

In Twenty Fifteen, I vow to take more time to share with you my favorite cookies.  I suppose that is my New Years resolution.  And that's a good goal for me.  I'm always excited to start a new year as I feel like its a do over, or a feeling that we all have a clean slate as to start our new year anew.  And so as I reflect back on Twenty Fourteen, and look forward to Twenty Fifteen I will share with you that I feel blessed to have my family, my friends and my new and old acquaintances in my life.  As many of you may know, I love making connections with people and finding out their stories.  I hope to do more of that.  I would like to find YOUR story and possibly share it with others.  Making that connection in hopes of realizing that we are all connected in this world.  The more we can get along and understand that its okay that we do have differences, the more this world will be a better place.

Here's to Twenty Fifteen and the New Year!

Sharon