2006 ended with a purge. The storage room in the basement was filled to capacity. It was time to throw out all of the college notebooks and graduate school papers. Phone bills from 1993. Items that had lost their sentimental meaning. Framed photos of the ex-boyfriend who shall not be named.

All of it bagged and pushed over the edge at the dump.

Josh and I were each going through boxes of important papers, deciding what to keep. At the same moment, we turned to each other and both said, "I'm holding what I said at my grandfather's funeral."

How creepy is that?

The fit of reorganization spread upstairs. We ended up at IKEA on the 31st and are now the proud owners of a Billy bookcase and Magiker unit. As well as seven new Swedish words added to my vocabulary including inkopslista. We moved the seven thousand books scattered across our kitchen floor onto the bookshelf. We filled the cabinet with toys. We moved all the piles of "stuff" to its new, proper place.

I'm still on a cleaners high.

And like a huge wave threatening to crash (but that we're hopefully still riding), the reorganization will skip up the stairs in the next few days. Clutter will be eliminated from the bedroom. Our bathrooms will soon be void of expired medications. The clothes slung across the guest room bed will be taken to the dry cleaners.

It. Feels. So. Damn. Good.

I love to clean. Whenever I'm stressed, I love to clean. I had been waking up most mornings with my heart pounding from anxiety. This morning, for the first time in weeks--no pounding. Not even a dull thud. It was just a normal heartbeat. I needed to work out all of my anxiety from 2006 so I could enter 2007 breathing normally.

Let's see how long this lasts.

Anyway, Teamwinks had a great idea last Friday that I want to expand to cover the entire last year. As y'all know, I love writing a blog roundup each week to spark conversation, point out interesting things I read, and, overall, show the world all the posts that influence my train of thought. And using Teamwink's idea as a jumping board, what if people nominated their own favourite post from the last year. Their best writing--the blog post that perfectly summed up a moment in time. A post that you feel best expresses how you felt in 2006. A post that helped other people understand something from an entirely unique point-of-view. You know the post I'm talking about. The one you would wear if you had to go on a first date this Friday.

Which means you can't be modest this week. Between now and Friday, send me a link to the best post you wrote in 2006. I will create a list of them on Friday morning, the creme de la creme of the infertility and pregnancy loss blogging world for 2006. And who knows where this will lead. An award with a beautiful pot de creme graphic for your blog? A huge open discussion series using these posts as a jumping board for people? Just a new tradition of creating a best post roundup for the previous year each January? Anyway, either leave a comment here with link--just a link, no full posts--(and you can nominate someone else's post too--though really, don't be modest. Everyone has a perfect post) or send me an email at thetowncriers@gmail.com. And also leave your ideas on where this tradition should lead.

Lastly, I was told today that someone nominated me for a Bloggie. But because the only people who become finalists have multiple nominations, I just thought I'd (cough) put it out there (cough, cough) in case anyone (achem) wants to nominate me again. I would love to win an award. The nominations are open from now until January 10th.

Shameless self-promotion part is over. Now nominate your best post for my creme de la creme roundup. And keep them coming all week. And then check back on Friday to read the creme de la creme (and I'll keep it linked in the sidebar for the rest of the year too).

And if anyone is reading this and it is beyond January 5th, send me your link anyway. I can keep adding links to the creme de la creme post.
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Updated at 10:36 p.m. If you have a link to your best posts in your side bar, still choose one and send it along. I sort of envision this post to be like one of those best short stories of 2006 collections. You'd have all the links in one post and you could jump off of it to the best posts on each person's blog. And just to make it clear--send only the link or the post will get too long. And feel free to write a short description to go along with the link. Maybe two or three sentences tops?
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Updated again at 4:02 p.m. This is so much fun! I love all the posts that are being sent in and the list is really a pleasure to create. This is the format I'm using:

• On Changes (from Serenity Now!): a unique perspective on infertility and change.
• The Dark Side (from Well, Now That We're Here...): pregnancy after infertility without the gestational naivete.

Just to give you a sense of what I'm doing. Keep the links coming--it's any post you're connected to emotionally. Any post that sums up a moment in 2006. Any post that could help others to read. From fertility treatments to loss to parenting after infertility (yes--send in parenting after IF posts too!), all of them are great.