Happy Holidays, and a Couple More Lists

I hope everyone has had a joyous and healthy holiday season. just a quick post today to tell you about two more lists that this list-ophile has composed.  The first was by invitation: Robert Brewer of Writer's Digest and the Poetic Asides blog invited me to list five favorite poetry collections - poetry books that have been significant or important to me in some way.  Here is the link to his blog and that list:
http://www.writersdigest.com/whats-new/5-favorite-poetry-collections-bruce-w-niedt

The other list is one I recently posted on Facebook, which tries to list your 20 biggest moments on the site in the past year (apparently based on "likes" and comments). They actually got some of them right, but I posted my own personal list of top 5 events.  Here, though, I'll expand it to 10:

1. The birth of our first grandchild, the beautiful Isabel
2. Celebrating our 40th wedding anniversary with our first trip ever to Las Vegas
3. My youngest son's achievements, including college acceptances, making Eagle Scout, and attending Boys State (where he was elected "State Senator")
4. My wife's retirement (although she still seems as busy as ever)
5. Attending the Winter Getaway Poetry and Prose Writers Conference with my talented poet son, and workshopping with Dorianne Laux
6. Seeing the Grand Canyon for the first time (during our Vegas trip)
7. Attending the Poets Forum in New York, which included hanging out with my New Yorker sons and getting to say hello to my famous poet friend Jane Hirshfield
8. Our family vacation to Massanutten, Virginia, which included a trip to the spectacular Luray Caverns
9. Poetry appearances, including co-hosting a haiku workshop and reading at The Collingswood Book Festival, and a featured reading in Atlantic City for the South Jersey Poets Collective.
10. Poetry publications, including my autobiographical poem "Nine Innings" in the journal Spitball, plus my article mentioned above.

Next year promises to be a big one too, as we prepare for my youngest son's high school graduation and advancement to college, and my own impending retirement. I hope everyone reading has a happy and prosperous new year!