2024 – Wall-E

    It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day, it’s a new year, and I’m feeling like watching Wall-E.

    Somewhere along the way, we decided Wall-E, Bob’s favourite movie – but not the top of his list anymore – would be our New Year’s Eve tradition. We started our year, and this marathon really, by watching it, and so we ended this year by watching it as well – and started our next one. It’s still a cute and romantic way to spend an evening in, even if we probably slept through half of it, and watching the world slowly recover from what humanity has done to it is still a hopeful way to ring in the new year.

    We’ve been through a lot this year. More than I could ever write down here. The latter half of the year has seen our marathon suffer for all that’s going on, but we’re both hopeful that things will pick up as we settle into a new routine that sees our son in school, our daughter in a much nicer daycare, and Bob and I in jobs with regular, reliable, schedules, at least for a little while.

    2023 saw our children turn five and two, respectively, and our son started kindergarten. We got plenty of new fish, and Bob acquired an obsession with aquatic snails that might border on the unhealthy. We got a kitten, which took up about as much time as I expected, but which enriched our lives much more than I could ever have anticipated.

    We grew closer as a couple, working our relationship and our own personal mental health. I read 107 different books – much to Bob’s chagrin when I did not always return them to the library on time (I still have 20 that are collecting overdue fees but as I keep reminding him those clear as soon as you return them so really, no harm, no foul.)

    We managed, somehow, miraculously, despite the chaos of our lives to watch, rank, and write about 130 movies, 151 if you count our 21 National Geographic specials.

    Here’s the breakdown:

• Animated: 42
• Live: 70
• Pixar: 6
• Originals: 7
• VHS Sequels: 2
• Christmas: 3
• NatGeo: 21

    That’s not too shabby, though I do wish our Christmas list had managed just a little bit more.

    Who knew how chaotic December would be? Our son had issues at the kids shared daycare, and the normal Christmas chaos, plus Bob needed to get a ton of paperwork together and had his own family issues. But we survived it, and, I think, the past two weeks of our lives have been some of the best that we’ve ever shared.

    I can only hope that this upcoming year sees as much happiness, and a little less chaos, than the past. I can only hope that we manage to watch even more Disney films – though one film nearly every 3 days is nothing to sneeze at. We’ve discovered films neither of us ever thought we’d enjoy, and we also discovered films that made us want to claw our eyes out.

    This marathon, this year, has, in reflection, been an absolute gift, and I am hopeful for our next one. And to all of our lovely readers, who’ve joined us so far on this epic, Disneyfied adventure, from our family to yours, we hope for a magical, and happy year to come.