As we come to the end of yet another exhausting year in the world of politics, we have to say our outlook for the future is one heck of a lot rosier than it was at this time last year. Last year truly brought the winter of our discontent, and we wondered whether we should even bother to keep writing this blog. This year, however, we're still surfing the rise in energy brought about by the blue wave in the midterm elections, and are now truly looking forward to seeing a new year dawn -- most especially in the House of Representatives. In other words, our crisis in confidence is over, and we're rarin' to go for 2019.

But, as always, we have to ask our readers' help in raising the necessary money to keep the site up and running all year long. We truly want to remain dedicated to running this site ad-free, but to do that we're going to need your help. To make this small sacrifice easier on you, we will be lulling you into a state of saccharine sweetness in the usual way -- with kittens!

Waiting for Santa

We started the year in a pretty dismal place, personally. You almost might say we were getting pretty close to the edge.

Dangling over the precipice

Democrats were in a very cold wilderness, and regaining any sort of power in Washington just seemed way too far out of reach.

Out in the cold

But then a strange thing began to happen. More and more politics-watchers started going out on a limb and predicting the likelihood of a Democratic resurgence, in the form of a big blue wave gathering off on the horizon.

Going way out on a limb

Democratic candidates -- many of them newcomers to politics -- put their best face forward, dressed up in their nicest clothes, and hit the campaign trail as hard as they could.

I'd like to announce my candidacy...

And, in the end, they got the best present ever, as the blue wave swept the Republicans out of power in the House of Representatives.

It's exactly what I was hoping for!

Which all has given us a whole lot of hope for 2019. The effort was a long and tiring one, so some have more than deserved a long winter's nap for the time being.

A well-deserved rest

Looking forward, although 2019 promises to be a much better year than the past two, we've still got to pay the bills here at CW.com. Without your donations, the site would quickly become snowed under, so in order to stay on top of things your donation is critical to keep the reality-based commentary going for the next year.

Help us avoid that sinking feeling!

Throughout the year, we will strive once again to keep you informed, share our opinions about the world around us, and at times provide some amusement to keep us all going.

He said you'd pledge more if I wore this silly hat...

By helping to fund this site, you'll play the part of Santa, and make our holiday season the best ever!

Best Christmas ever!

This time only comes once a year, and it's a time to bring families together -- whether that means biological families, or the family of like-minded readers here at CW.com. You may feel a bit of an odd man out elsewhere, but you'll always be welcome here.

A brother from another mother, as it were...

So please, this holiday season, dig deep into your wallets and purses, and give what you can. For the past few years, we've been able to reach our fundraising goal, and we sincerely hope we can do so again this year.

We can reach our goal together if we try!

As always, our Holiday Pledge Drive logo will top every page here for the next month, complete with a thermometer at the bottom showing how close we are to reaching our donation goal for the year. Clicking on this image will take you to our 2018 Holiday Pledge Drive page, which has full instructions on how to make donations -- via Pay Pal, with credit card, or even through snail mail. There is also a Donate button on the top right side of every page here, which looks like this:

Clicking on this takes you directly to the PayPal donations page we have set up. Donations are accepted from either your own PayPal account, or from all major credit cards (you do not need to set up a PayPal account to donate by credit card this way, I should mention). Another technical note: you do not have to be registered as a CW.com site user to donate via PayPal in this fashion either.

So whether you can afford to give a little or a lot this year, we certainly will be grateful for anything you can spare to support the site.

Next year should prove to be an interesting one, that's for sure. And if we can hit our holiday pledge drive goal, we'll certainly sleep better at night.

Dreaming of sugarplums

We thank you in advance for all your support. If you are not in a position to donate this year, we certainly understand. If you can afford to give a little -- say, the price of a good cup of coffee per week -- then it will go a long way towards providing ChrisWeigant.com with what should prove to be a much more upbeat year than the last one.

And, of course, we hope everyone's holiday wishes all come true and that you and yours have a wonderfully happy holiday season!

-- Chris Weigant

Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant