I got several responses for the last T-SQL Tuesday of the year that am honored to host. My topic was to blog on whatever you considered to be a gift that you received during the year. Below is the summary.

 Todd Klienhans talks of using his hobby – virtual reality, to make a project that helps post dog pictures online. His goal is to help motivate a friend, Jeff Rush, as well as others who like seeing pictures of pets when they want to.  It is Todd’s gift to community, and a really nice one at that.

 Rob Farley, my friend from down under, talks of his speaking gigs, encouraging people to speak at PASS speaker-idol(one of whom actually won the contest – Deborah Melkin), and a good friend of his, Hamish Watson, winning the Passion Award. Seeing our mentees succeed is one of the greatest rewards of community.

 Taiob Ali talks of getting nominated and winning the MVP award, and all the people who helped him through it. He also calls out the volunteer team he runs the SQL Saturday at Boston with, and his friend Deborah Melkin winning the speaker-idol award. Congratulations Taiob, and thanks for all you/your team do for community!

Koen Verbeeck talks of a new feature of PowerBI, and performance enhancements in Azure Data Factory , in addition to his speaking engagements. These are what he considers gifts for the year.

Deborah Melkin a.k.a. ‘Deb the DBA’ has had a great year with winning the speaker idol as well as getting to be an IDERA ACE. Way to go, Deb!

Shane O’Neill chooses to divide his gifts into SQL Past, Present and Future, and talks of what he received spanning each time zone that way. He prizes his community contacts over everything else he considers gifts in his professional life, and I couldn’t agree more myself.

Reitse Eskins talks of the gift of community, and of his incredibly supportive wife, as being his true gifts.

 Tracy Boggiano, one of my good friends in the community – talks of her book writing experience with Grant Fritchey, her mentor Kelly Pot Vin-Gorman, and championing the cost of mental health, as well as finding a new job, and her work with foster kids. Tracy is a natural giver, one for whom I have huge respect for. Thank you Tracy, for all that you do.

Aaron Bertrand talks of his career change as the defining point of the year, and reasons why he did it. This is probably the most popular/most RT-ed post of all, since Aaron is a highly respected figure in the community .(Aaron also mentions the ‘loose definition’ of the theme, which is a point I personally note to do better next time– thank you).

My friend and xevents expert Jason Brimhall talks of the using the free tool from microsoft to resolve the dreaded ‘cannot generate SSPI context error’. He also rightly mentions that we should be blogging in gratitude more often than once a year.

Jeff Miller talks of finding his dream job with Kevin Hill as a DBA. It is always motivating to see people get their first break..Well done, Jeff and Kevin.

Jess Pomfret also talks of her dream job and relocating back to her native England – a job she found via John Martin’s tweet. I am continually amazed at how many careers are made by #sqlfamily connections, this is another one. Good luck on the move, Jess.

Kevin Hill talks of growing his team/consulting business with two more people,and growing prospects in 2020. Best of luck, Kevin!

Steve Jones, my good friend and owner of #tsql2sday as of now talks of his trip to Australia with his family, and how he was able to enjoy it both personally and professionally.

Andy Levy talks of yet another job transition, and one that he did not quite expect. He also mentions a vacation and deepening ties with #sqlfamily as rewards for the year. Well done, Andy, and good luck with the new gig!

Matt Gordon, my good friend and ug lead out of Lexington mentions the two sessions at  SQLSat-Charlotte that made a big difference to him – Tracy Boggiano talking on mental health, and Donna Ellis Wilson on ‘Failure needs to be an option’. I personally attended both these classes and found them gifts at a very profound level – or as Matt says, the lines ‘ When you are fairly reserved, as I am, seeing other people call attention to issues that you are also dealing with is a greater gift than a free book, t-shirt, or some new bit of technical knowledge.’. Thank you Matt, for sharing that, and also Donna and Tracy, for speaking up on important issues that most people shy away from.

Ken Fisher talks of being an introvert and still feeling accepted among community – also includes an anecdote about an online twitter conversation with his wife that was misunderstood by a friend and ended well.

I have received many, many gifts in 2019. It has been among my roller coaster years, to be honest. There were several ups and downs and lessons all the way. My recap is here.

Lastly, my friend and DevOps expert Alex Yates micro-blogged on having a new baby and how that has changed his life. Congratulations Alex!

7 people out of 18 people talk of their new dream jobs. This should give all of us hope that there are good gigs out there, if we are stuck in a bad place. No gig is perfect, of course, but it helps to have a dream and a direction to get to a better place. Almost everyone mentions their involvement with community/#sqlfamily as a huge reward. If you are reading this and not an active part of community yet – please consider doing so. It helps to be among supportive, uplifting people who care for you and have similar goals as you do.

To conclude – I really liked these lines from Shane O Neill’s post – ‘ I believe the best gift is the gifts that you can give back. So, here’s hoping that the next year sees us all help more than hinder, learn more than laze, and teach more than troll.’

Best Wishes for a Safe and Happy holiday season!