Another year; another winter vacation has come and gone, and with it the marking of another year of my trying to figure my way through this life thing as best I can.

2016 was a weird year; a lot of it felt pretty aimless and even a bit disconcerting. It felt kind of like one of those days you have when you work a lot and you know you were really busy, but you have a hard time feeling like you accomplished much in the end.

With each month that passes now I realize slowly that I am no longer in that phase of my life where I am parenting very small children, and I’m adjusting to the fact that I’m going to be parenting teenagers for many years now. I find I will miss the tiny little humans part of my life, because by the time we were done with that part, we had become pretty good at it.

And I have no real clue how to parent teenagers. It probably involves a little booze and a lot of hoping and praying that you are teaching your children not to be jackasses and to be compassionate humans. It’s definitely going to be an adventure. I think—so far—we are doing a pretty good job. My children are very fascinating people who share a lot of my idiosyncrasies and are starting to discover who they are and who they want to be. I can’t wait to find out where those journeys take them.

It was also the year I witnessed my wife find a new confidence in herself and who she is. It serves only to make her more attractive and wonderful to me, and I am gifted with her presence in my life. She makes me a better person. She also went above and beyond for my birthday today, making an amazing turkey dinner. It was delicious.

I could not imagine my life without my family. They are amazing people and I find myself wondering constantly what I have done to deserve them.

I posted previously regarding my goals for 2017 here and here, so I won’t belabor them much more in these words. It is enough to say that I am hoping to increase my personal skills in a few ways and to do good things for the communities of which I am a member.

In just over a week, I’ll be celebrating seven years with Automattic, which is crazy to think about. I’ll write more about that when it happens, but it’s probably the craziest chance I ever took with my professional career, and it’s paid off in spades. I have amazing and talented colleagues who inspire me to be better every day, and I can only hope to work alongside them for many years to come.

2017 carries a lot of uncertainty for a lot of reasons. It’s impossible to know where it will lead. Here’s to hoping it’s full of new opportunities, lots of learning, and continued self-improvement.

(If you want to give me a birthday present, follow my Twitch channel. You’ll see me there more often this year if I have anything to say about it.)