When I recive the Host,
I will never boast.
I will feel grown-up,
When I drink from His holy cup.

I walk up and start my Reading,
Then in a line, I am proceeding.

In my crown and in my veil,
Oh, Jesus and God,
How I hail!

Allielulia! Allielulia!
Hip-hip hooray!
It will be my Communion Day!

Me on my First Communion day. Note that I am not boasting.

All these years later, mostly what I remember about my First Communion, besides getting to rock a veil and tiara, is that my parents gave me my very first bike, and then we got Mister Softee.

It was awesome.

First book I read in 2011: Harmonic Feedback by Tara Kelly

Fave reading-related events of the year: The 90-Second Newbery Festival! David Levithan, Stephanie Perkins, Carolyn Mackler, Jay Asher, A.S. King, and EVERYONE ELSE IN THE WORLD at Anderson’s. Julie Halpern’s Don’t Stop Now release party at the Book Stall. Printer’s Row Lit Fest. Craig Thompson’s Habibi presentation at the Book Cellar. Audrey Niffenegger’s Night Bookmobile presentation at the Sulzer library.

Favorite writing-related events of the year: The inaugural Chicago Kidlit Drinks Night, the YA writing workshop at the Book Cellar, and Molly Backes’s YA writing class at StoryStudio Chicago.

Book I spent all fall and winter so far pointing to in bookstores, while squeeing, “SHE’Z MAH FRIENNNNNNNNNNNNND!!!!”: The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, of course!

Book I got to geek out about with Audrey Niffenegger in the middle of her Night Bookmobile presentation: See above. Eee!

Books I made everybody read this year: The Night Circus (see above), The Order of Odd-Fish by James Kennedy.

Best belated book discovery: the Ruby Oliver books by E. Lockhart.

Best books I finally crossed off my to-read list: Looking For Alaska by John Green, The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak, Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly, Audrey, Wait! by Robin Benway, Sweethearts by Sara Zarr. (I don’t know what took me so long, either.)

Book that taught me the most about setting this year: Like Mandarin by Kirsten Hubbard.

Book that taught me the most about voice this year: Please Ignore Vera Dietz by A.S. King.

Books that taught me the most about swoon this year: Anna and the French Kiss and Lola and the Boy Next Door, both by Stephanie Perkins.

Books that kept me company on my retreat in the Wisconsin woods: Paper Towns by John Green, Evening Class by Maeve Binchy.

Book that kept me company throughout the entire August Train Adventure: Leonard Bernstein by Humphrey Burton.

Best graphic novel I read all year, which also happened to be the best book I read all year about a fellow socially anxious redhead: Page by Paige by Laura Lee Gulledge.

Best books I read this year about the creative process: Page by Paige (see above) and What It Is by Lynda Barry.

Best work-related book I read this year: Designs for Living and Learning by Deb Curtis and Margie Carter.

Best out-of-character read for me this year: Divergent by Veronica Roth.

Best book that reminded me how old I am by treating my high school graduation year as historical fiction: The Future of Us by Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler.

Best sequel I read this year: The Magician King by Lev Grossman.

Best book I’m still having nightmares about: Room by Emma Donoghue.

Best book I’m still having wonderfully creepy dreams about: Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

Favorite writing-related blog post of the year: “How To Be A Writer” by Molly Backes.

Last book I read (so far) in 2011: Bossypants by Tina Fey.

Don’t think of this as a “best-of” list–it’s way too personal for that. Think of this as a “favorites-of” list, or maybe even a “soundtrack-of” list. Lots of this music was released before 2011, but it just happened to find its way into my life in 2011. And I’m glad it did.

I’ve put together a Spotify playlist of some of these songs, and others, right here. Enjoy! And please share your favorites of the year in the comments–I’d love to know what your 2011 sounded like.

First song I downloaded in 2011: “Why Does The Sun Really Shine?”, They Might Be Giants (I believe Here Comes Science was on sale at Amazon in January.)

Five songs I played the most times in 2011: “If You Only Knew,” Kathryn Calder. “January Hymn,” The Decemberists. “Helplessness Blues,” Fleet Foxes. “Sunday Will Never Be The Same,” Spanky and Our Gang. “’39,” Queen.

Albums I dug the most in 2011: Are You My Mother, Kathryn Calder. The King Is Dead, The Decemberists. All Eternals Deck, The Mountain Goats. Collapse Into Now, R.E.M. The Head and the Heart, The Head and the Heart. Helplessness Blues, Fleet Foxes. Artificial Heart, Jonathan Coulton.

Runners-up: Join Us, They Might Be Giants. Sky Full Of Holes, Fountains of Wayne. Page One, Steven Page.

Songs of The Great Blizzard Of 2011: “January Hymn,” The Decemberists. “February,” Dar Williams. “Snow Days,” Trip Shakespeare.

Favorite shows of the year: Peter Mulvey with JT and the Clouds at SPACE. Jimmy Webb at SPACE. Lori McKenna and Young Mark Erelli at the Old Town School. Colin Hay at some random performing arts center in Schaumburg. Gandalf Murphy and the Slambovian Circus of Dreams at SPACE. Yo La Tengo at the Green Music Festival. Harry and the Potters with Diagon Alley at Giddings Plaza. Jukebox the Ghost at Ribfest. The Grant Park Orchestra and Chorus at Millennium Park, for my mom’s 70th birthday. The Decemberists with The Head and the Heart at the Aragon. Mucca Pazza at Dawes Park. They Might Be Giants with Jonathan Coulton at the Vic. Tributosaurus as Queen at the Vic. Nerissa and Katryna Nields in Berwyn at the This Old House Concert series.

Favorite shows of the year, Out Of Town Edition: Erik Hokkanen’s Laboratory at Flipnotic’s in Austin. The Panorama Jazz Band at the Spotted Cat in New Orleans. Chapter Soul (three trombone guys) at Maison in New Orleans. The Cocksure Lads with Mike Ford at Hugh’s Room in Toronto.

Favorite shows of the year, Flat Five edition: The Flat Five at SPACE in January. The Flat Five at the Old Town School in July. The Flat Five at the Hideout Sunday night.

Other people’s songs I’ll never forget performing this year: “Diamonds and Rust” at the Gallery Cabaret Dylan tribute. “Lorraine” by Lori McKenna, for the 2U Mother’s Day service. “Hitting You” by Loudon Wainwright III and “Bloody Motherfucking Asshole” at the Gallery Cabaret Father’s Day tribute. “Conversation” by Joni Mitchell and “One Was Johnny” at the Gallery Cabaret “Girls Like Us” tribute. “The Seven Deadly Virtues” with Gail at church. “The Water Is Wide,” Indigo Girls/Sarah McLachlan/Jewel style, with Jen and Melissa, for the Pete Seeger service at church. “One” by Billy Jonas with Neal, Kat, and Gail for the guest service by the Ugandan minister. “What’s The Frequency, Kenneth?”, “Crush With Eyeliner,” and “King of Comedy” by R.E.M., as part of my Acoustic Monster project, for a bunch of my friends at Perla Cafe. “Nothing Compares 2U” by request at a 2U karaoke party. “Can I Interest You In Hanukkah?” with Neal for Music Sunday.

Song I wrote this year and actually liked: “Mercury.” Yes, it was about my car.

Songs that came along at just the right time: “UBerlin,” R.E.M. “High Hawk Season,” The Mountain Goats. “Story Of My Life,” Social Distortion.

Song that will haunt my nightmares forever: “Skidoo,” from the film of the same name, as performed by Carol Channing.

Song I still like even after a year of overexposure: “Rolling in the Deep,” Adele. (Of course, I said the same thing last year about “Home” by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes…)

Bands I never, ever want to hear from again after this year: Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes (see above), Mumford & Sons. Possibly the Civil Wars as well. Sorry, guys.

Best songs discovered via mp3 blogs: “If You Only Knew,” Kathryn Calder. “Rothko Chapel,” David Dondero. “Up Up Up,” Givers. “Jesse Likes Birds,” Carrie Elkin. “Don’t Gotta Work It Out,” Fitz & The Tantrums. “Ghost Bird,” Amanda Shires.

Best songs discovered via turntable.fm: “Concerning the Lincoln & Douglas Debates,” John Elliott. “I Don’t Know,” Lisa Hannigan. “Sophia,” Laura Marling.

Best song discovered via TV: “There’s A Platypus Controlling Me,” Dr. Doofenshmirtz. (I wish I were kidding.) (I’m not speaking metaphorically.) (The platypus controlling me is underneath the table.)

Best songs discovered via radio: “When People Go,” Craig Cardiff. “Spaceship Lullaby,” Sun Ra. “Holiday Road” as covered by The Dahlmanns.”Mayhem,” Imelda May. “Dig You Later (A Hubba Hubba Hubba),” Perry Como (seriously, have you heard this song? It is ridiculous. Thank you, Sirius XM ’40s on 4.)

Best song discovered via an author’s book playlist: “Greetings in Braille,” The Elected. (From John Green’s Paper Towns playlist.)

Best songs discovered via mix CDs: “Ode To A Koala Bear,” Paul McCartney (hee). “The Ghost of Emma Jean,” Beat Circus. “Squealing Pigs,” Admiral Fallow. “Both Hands,” Jay Brannan covering Ani DiFranco.

Best song discovered via the unplumbed depths of my own mp3 collection: “Lucklucky,” Veda Hille.

Last song I downloaded in 2011: “Coffee,” Yuna.

In a few hours, Neal and I will be on our way to spend Thanksgiving at his mom’s house in Rochester, NY. Am I packed? No. Am I packing? No. Am I making a Thanksgiving-themed playlist, adding my Christmas music back to my iPod, and typing up a blog post? Yes. Very yes.

I still remember the Thanksgiving song I learned in preschool: “…I’m thankful for my friends and for my family, thankful am I for all God gives to me.” I’d teach it to my Sunday school students, but as I always say, “The Spirit of Love and Mystery That Some People Call God” just doesn’t scan so well. And my Thanksgiving song of choice for my weekday preschoolers is always an adaptation of “Freight Train”: “Tell your friends which train you’re on and they’ll know just where you’ve gone.” The kids volunteer different places they want to travel on the freight train. It always starts based in reality, taking the trips they’ll be taking over Thanksgiving break, and then it quickly shifts into elaborate fantasy: “Going to Batman Spiderman Monster Jam Costume World Castle Hockey Game, going so fast!”

I am thankful for my friends and family, though. And I’m thankful for all the things life gives to me.

I’m thankful for making music with my students and friends. For places that support and nurture independent musicians, like Life Force Arts Center, where I played a few weeks ago with my friend Kat Kidwell. For singing in the choir at church, for friends who understand why a speed metal arrangement of “This Little Babe” would be the best thing ever, for harmonies and shaker eggs and new guitar strings.

I’m thankful for 18 students who teach me new things every single day, for people who believe in and fight for progressive education and early intervention, for all the things I know and all the things I still have to learn.

I’m thankful for people who believe that YA saves, for all the writers I look up to and all the writers I can call friends, for a gigantic TBR pile, for notebooks and screens both full and blank, for lots and lots of pens.

I’m thankful for having a new car.

I’m thankful for cold medicine. (Sniffle.)

And I’m thankful that I’ve still got enough time to pack before we have to leave.

Happy Thanksgiving.