It’s Christmas Eve in Australia as I write this and I’m sitting in the air-conditioned bubble that is my parent’s house sipping champagne in front of the Christmas tree. There’s no snow blanketing the ground outside, in fact the La Nina has left us with over a month of near constant rain and turned many drought stricken communities into flood ravaged towns. There’ll be no pond hockey late at night, no snowmen or fireplaces. Instead we’ll eat seafood, drink champagne and go for a swim. Many of my countrymen will spend the day at the beach (Bondi in Sydney is expecting upwards of 100,000 beachgoers on Christmas day alone) and instead of the Boxing Day WJC opening tilt we’ll settle down with leftover ham and prawns to take in the Boxing Day test.
I wouldn’t swap spending the day with my family for just about anything, but after the white Christmas I enjoyed in Ottawa in 2008 you realize how slightly more forced a warm one can feel when it comes to the “traditional” mood many of us dream of after watching Christmas shows and movies.
The point of Christmas though is to give thanks. It’s to thank the world for those around us, thank those around us for the world they help us live in, the joy they bring to our lives and to that of others. So here I say my thanks both serious and silly.
To my family (Mum, Dad and Sam) – Thank you for being there to pick me up and brush me off, to believe in me when I don’t, to call me out when I’m being a cow or a drama queen (it happens). Thanks for always having my back, my front and everything in between. Thank you for teaching me the lessons you have taught me, for raising me to become the women I’ve become and giving me the courage to follow my heart in what I want to do with my life. I can dream big because I know that there will always be someone who will believe in me and those dreams in you guys.
To my friends – Thank you for the laughs, the drinks, the parties and the dancing. Thank you for the lecture notes, the coffee dates and coming to my dinner parties. Thank you for dressing up, rocking out and making my life so much richer for your being in it.
To Brynna (or @rihani or @shoot4the5hole depends which capacity you know her in) – Thank you for letting me sleep on your floor for months on end. For taking me to work and picking me up every day. For being the best friend even when we had fights and were driving each other crazy to the point of near murder. Thank you for always picking me up when I had a break down, for always bringing a smile to me with our combined insanity. Thank you for believing in every crazy dream or idea I’ve ever had and having such absolute faith in everything I do. It means the world to me.
To Isaac (@isaacmorrison17) – Thanks for talking hockey so much with me, having my back at the rink and being such a great help at the Finals and around the rink. I hope you know how much faith I have in you and how much you can do in hockey here.
To Bhavna (@stajans_girl) – Thank you for driving all the way to Buffalo and back to pick me up, for letting me crash at yours, for taking me to Marlies games and feeding me candy and the world’s greatest Indian. Thank you for helping me find the world’s smallest Luke Schenn t-shirt, for ransacking H & M repeatedly with me and being such a great friend even on the opposite side of the room.
To Theresa (@thofacre) and Kristen – Thank you for putting up with my silly and random emails at ridiculous hours often in all caps. Thank you for responding to them without judging me, for being sweet and kind and two people I wish I saw so much more of.
To Jeff (@jeffmarek) – Thank you for letting me tag along to HNIC, introducing me to some great people, and treating me like someone who know something about hockey! That and making me laugh so often on twitter.
To Joe (@hockeyjoepht) – Thank you for never wants seeming to have an issue with the insane rambling I do to you at the weirdest of times. Thank you for treating me like a person who knows something about the game, boosting my self esteem with your belief in my “awesomeness” and what I do. It means an awful lot to me.
To Dee Karl (@7thWomen), Su Ring (@Motley_Su) and all the other wonderful hockey women – I thank you for the coverage, support, help and faith you have shown me this past year. To have such incredibly women, such talented writers, proponents and supporters of the game and all it can do show such faith and belief in me as a person, and in my work whether with Everett, the AIHL, the AWIHL, Heartbreak Hockey or any of my other crazy plans or ideas has made me truly believe I can make a substantial and positive impact on this game.
To the ES Staff & Boys – Thank you for making my laugh, for teaching me horrible slang terms I never wanted to know, for staying in touch, geeking out hockey with me and all the fun we had.
There’s hundreds of others I could thank on twitter and online, all the girls who’ve bought @heartbreakhcky gear and everyone else I’ve met along the way.
I love you all.
May your day be merry and bright, and may your Christmas be just right.
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