New Year Shenanigans

2011 is almost over, can you believe it? (No.) It's time to glance back at the year behind us and start looking ahead to the next, friends.

2011 in Review
Starting tomorrow, we begin wrapping up the year. Each royal lady that receives a Week in Review post here will also get a 2011 in Review post with my picks for her best and worst outfits. Start racking your brains, I'll be eager to hear your picks as well. Our other features this week will also have a year in review theme to them, because a little nostalgia never hurt anyone.

What's Coming Up in 2012
If 2011 was the Year of the Royal Wedding, 2012 is shaping up to be the Year of the Jubilee. I'm sure we're all looking forward to the events surrounding Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee, but Queen Margrethe will go first with the celebrations for her Ruby Jubilee (that's a whopping 40 years on the throne).

Since there are so many jubilee celebrations, I thought it might be somewhat entertaining to take a look back at how some of our favorite sovereigns got there in the first place. Every monarchy handles the ceremony of inducting a new head differently; some are somber, some are glittering, many are a mix. As we hit the anniversaries of some of those accessions, we'll be looking back to where they began. We'll also glance back at how they've celebrated their jubilees to date, to add a little context to this year's various celebrations.

There's just loads going on in the coming royal year, so to help us all keep it straight, I've added a new page to the blog: Upcoming Events. This is a brief listing of the biggest royal events throughout the year (not every individual appearance, mind you, just those that usually get special coverage here in one way or another). Right now it has events we know are coming up, some of the big anniversaries and birthdays coming up, plus those annual shindigs that received a Royal Fashion Awards post from me in 2011. Further events will be added and detailed as the year goes on.

(Psst: Links to the calendar and our other pages can be found right below the header above. If you've never explored those, you'll find a page to help you figure out who's who when you have no idea who we're on about, a page of links to all the wedding themed stuff we've discussed here, a page with links to all the jewels we've talked about, and the site commenting policy.)

It's been ever so much fun chatting with you kids this year, I do hope you'll stick around for the nonsense and sparkle to come!