Best. Christmas. Present. Ever!!!

I was in a horrible mood this weekend, totally stressed out from all the forced holiday cheer, too many things to wrap and no wrapping paper left, having to mingle with the other last minute grocery shopping losers at Trader Joe's fighting over the leftovers, with two screaming children in tow (one screaming because she did not want to sit in the cart, the other one screaming because he thought it was hilarious, which it really wasn’t, not in the slightest...), fighting with all the other bah humbugs in traffic, and just generally angst-ridden.

But this morning, I woke up after a really nice dream, the sun was shining and the sky was blue, I turned on my computer and saw this!

Ben Martin posted his year-end association blog awards – and I was so psyched to see that he named jnott the “best association blogger of 2007” – a truly deserved award, and for the second year running, too. I thought, that is so awesome, well done Jamie. I find his blogs really inspiring.

Then I keep reading, and cor blimey, he’s gone and named me the “best new association blogger”! Dude!! I almost fell out of my chair. I had to tell Bo immediately, as she happened to be standing next to me hugging my leg, which is her (extremely annoying) thing right now. She’s only 22 months old but she looked up at me with a huge grin, as if to say, “I knew you could do it!!” It felt so great. Especially seeing who I was up against – all amazing bloggers, with so much great stuff to say. I am really proud to be part of such an illustrious crew.

I am on such a roll, I just want everyone right there with me. I can't believe how much I have found my feet this year, and I feel like I have lots of great things in my future. And a huge reason for that is this community that I have found where I can have a voice and where I can help make things happen. So I just wanted to say thank you from the bottom of my heart to Ben, and also to all association bloggers – I think it’s an amazing conversation we’re having, and we all need each other to really innovate and make a difference in the association world – and I think we’re all doing it, every day.

Have a great holiday!