In 2008 I started what is a fun, annual post for me.
Here are my top five lists from 2011.
Top Five Movies I Saw:
1. The Help
2. The King’s Speech
3. The Next Three Days
4. The Adjustment Bureau
5. The Lincoln Lawyer
Top Five Websites I Visited:
1. Ted.com
2. AJC.com / CNN.com / USATODAY.com
3. Pandora.com
4. CBSsports.com
5. FastCompany.com
Top Five Books I Read:
1. Choosing to See by Mary Beth Chapman
2. Great By Choice by Jim Collins
3. Jesus through the Centuries: His Place in the History of Culture by Jaroslav Pelikan
4. The Big Thirst by Charles Fishman
5. Signature in the Cell by Stephen C. Meyer
Top Five Restaurants I Ate At:
1. Subway
2. Sid’s Pizza (for pick-up, not dine-in)
3. California Pizza Kitchen
4. Taco Mac (more for the football than the food)
5. Starbucks (still not a restaurant, but I frequented no eating establishment more often. And my beverage of choice switched from hot chocolate to coffee and/or steam apple juice.)
Top Five Things I'm Really Glad I Spent My Time Doing:
1. Growing my relationship with my wife and children.
2. Being with my church family on Sunday mornings.
3. Tutoring kids at Esther Jackson Elementary School, helping to fund the digging of freshwater wells in Africa, and officiating at weddings at Kimball Hall.
4. Spending time with friends.
5. Reading.
Fifteen Great Memories
1. Attending my son’s basketball games and a little father-son, one-on-one game in a full court gym on Thanksgiving Day in North Carolina. Just the two of us in the entire gym. (And one not-so-great memory: spending time with him at two hospitals for surgery on his broken tibia and fibula in mid-December.)
2. Tucking my daughter in at night and driving her to school every morning, Mon-Fri.
3. Baptizing my daughter in the waters of Lake Lanier on October 22. The water was cold! The day was unforgettably wonderful!
4. The best six months in all the years of my marriage.
5. Our annual summer vacation in Hilton Head. Great again.
6. The Braves game with SteveW (about 250 phone conversations, too), tennis with Chris, Wednesday lunches over backgammon with Carlos, conversations with George and Dianne, and deepening friendships with Susie and Eddie.
7. Talking on the phone with my parents.
8. My 40th birthday celebration(s).
9. Sunday nights at Taco Mac with friends.
10. Phone conversations with my great Aunt Gracie, who passed away in the Fall at the age of 94…still quick-witted and sharp of mind.
11. Weddings at Kimball Hall.
12. A wonderful, warm and perfect Christmas brunch with my church family at Altobelli’s
13. One new cat, Iris, that unexpectedly resulted in two kittens, three weeks after we got her (we kept one of the two kittens, who Emma named “Snowball.”)
14. Rafting the Ocoee River with McKenzie, Jack, Naum and Ethan.
15. Christmas Morning with my family. The most relaxed and fun I can remember.
