If I ever start talking about packing up and moving during the holiday season again, anyone reading this hereby has permission to come to the office and give me a stern reminder of how terrible an idea that is. I really want you to lay into me, too, just to make sure I get the point.

From visiting with family and friends through the holidays to juggling two early deadlines in a row and figuring out all of the other five million small details that go along with the process, what should have taken a few days has stretched out into weeks.

As I write this, the final boxes were moved yesterday (Dec. 29) and an insane amount of cleaning the old apartment will likely go into the wee hours of tomorrow morning. We’ll be finalizing the transition just under the wire and, after that, I plan on sleeping through the entire first day of 2017.

Keep in mind that I haven’t been trying to manage this process solo. Everyone at the office has been really helpful and understanding and I’ve had plenty of assistance buying the place and actually making the move. Despite all of that, it feels like it’s taken a year just to get out of one home and into the next. I’m starting to think I’m just really, really bad at moving.

And speaking of the New Year, I hope this finds everyone thoroughly enjoying theirs. It was a pretty wild ride through 2016 and we’re looking forward to seeing what these next 12 months have to offer.

It certainly felt like a lot of “beginnings” took place this past year. The Community Garden is starting to take root, downtown development is in full swing, homes aplenty are going up, the local schools are excelling in both academics and sports and plenty of organizations are pulling together an untold number of events and activities around town. While the ball got rolling on a lot of those things in 2016, we look forward to seeing how everything builds momentum in 2017.

Sure, there are still plenty of wrinkles that need ironing out and obstacles that need to be overcome, but I can’t help but feel like Fountain Hills made some big strides forward last year that will only compound in the coming years.

Maybe that seems like an overly positive attitude (or maybe I’m just exhausted and a little delirious from this marathon of a move), but I figure it’s a solid mindset to have when beginning a year anew. Keep on the sunny side, right?

*****

As a final note, Times’ Publisher Alan Cruikshank has some big news he’s sharing with our readers this week. I didn’t want to chance stealing his thunder for those of you reading the paper from front to back, so I’ll throw in my two cents on the matter in next week’s column.

If the anticipation is simply too much to bear, then feel free to jump on back to page 1B to see what all of the fuss is about. I assure you, the letters will still be waiting on you when you’re finished.