Today was my 31st birthday, and by any reckoning it’s been an amazing year.

• I left my job of four years at Concordia Publishing House.
• I started working for Automattic, the best company in the world filled with fine people I now call friends and colleagues.
• My kids turned 7, 6, 5, and 3. They are getting too big for my good.
• I made my first trip out of the country (not counting a quick jaunt to Canada when I was a child) – to Lisbon, Portugal and had an amazing time. I really must go back someday.
• I bought my first digital SLR camera.
• I submitted my first accepted patch to the core WordPress project.
• I landed in the hospital with heart trouble and re-affirmed a commitment to better health.
• I curled for the first time (and definitely not the last).
• I went to my first WordCamp (in San Francisco, also my first visit to that city).

I’m sure there are many things I’ve done in the past year that I am forgetting here, but it’s been a good one with lots of great experiences shared with lots of people.

Thanks to all of you for making it the best yet. (Especially to my wife, who continues to put up with me for reasons I sometimes cannot fathom.)