The Best of The Cardinal Blog: 2009

By K.J. Cardinal

I know you've all been anxiously awaiting the year-end review of The Cardinal Blog, so without further ado... here it is.

The final year of the decade was certainly a memorable one for The Cardinal Blog and arguably the best year since the blog's inception back in the Summer of 2007. Sure, a busier year for me professionally yielded fewer blog posts and videos than a year ago, but we're here for quality, not quantity.

Perhaps the biggest innovation/addition to The Cardinal Blog in 2009 was the cross-marketing done through facebook. I caved to the masses and finally joined the facebook world and I have since set it up to automatically share all blog posts as a facebook note. This opened up the blog to a whole new audience. While I cannot quantify the numbers of hits on my facebook notes, based on the number of comments, there are clearly more people following the chronicles of the Cardinal family via facebook than on TheCardinalBlog.com.

2009 Inside the Numbers
• 119 blog posts (compared to 160 in 2008)
• 41 videos (compared to 46 in 2008)
• 15,000 hits (compared to 15,000 in 2008)
• Busiest month: April (17 posts)
• Slowest month: November (4 posts)

The Top-5 Most Viewed Videos of 2009
1. Stuck in the Mud (694 views)
2. Pool with Mommy (232 views)
3. I scream you scream (153 views)
4. Suzanne & Chris: The Wedding Song (138 views)
5. Chit chat (114 views)

The Cardinal Blog's Most Commented Posts of 2009
1. Keithaholic (6 comments)
1. Natalie, 9 months and a day! (6 comments)
3. Many others with 5 comments

My personal blog favorites of 2009
Favorite Post: Celtics, Man-hugs and a Tommy Point
Favorite Video: Wiiked cute
Favorite Photo: Be mine? (2/14/09)
Favorite Comment: Heather's comment on "I scream you scream"

While there were tons of posts, videos, photos and comments from 2009, my favorites were actually no-brainers for me. The Celtics, Man-hugs and a Tommy Point was just such an amazing day... like if you told me I could do whatever I wanted for one day, I couldn't have scripted it better. Wiiked cute is just Anna in a nutshell... so much personality, so expressive, so cute. The Be mine? photo isn't technically a photo since I photoshopped it, but it was just too adorable to not take the cake. And while Steve Lemon had plenty of witty comments that could've taken home 2009 Favorite Comment honors, I had to go with Heather's because it featured a hilarious reference from elementary school and was completely out of left field... or in her case, the left coast.

Angie's blog favorites of 2009
Favorite Post: Fantastic Fourth
Favorite Video: Cookie
Favorite Photo: Priceless (6/3/09)
Favorite Comment: Steve's comment on "Monkey highlights Hudson Halloween"

Looking ahead at 2010
I know that I mentioned it a few weeks ago, but live video streaming from my iPhone is going to be put into play in 2010. I still have a few kinks I want to work out and I believe that planned events will be much more successful than spontaneous live events, but we will see both occur in 2010. So, to ensure you don't miss out, follow me on twitter, as a tweet is automatically sent out when I start broadcasting.

Like always, I have to give a special thanks to my family for being the inspiration of this blog. I know this blog can often seem like a big love affair between all of us, but that's because our real lives are that way. My family is the greatest in the world and the best part of that is that we all know it and all appreciate it. Being a father for over two years now has made family become even more important to me and I'm so proud to be able to share my entire family with everyone through this blog.

Best wishes to a happy and healthy 2010. Blog on!