When another friend caught the accursed thing right at the start of the pandemic, he spent four days with an oxygen mask on, feeling, as he later put it, certain that he was going to die.

That is a measure of how far we have progressed in this dreadful period. We are learning to live with the pandemic. The friend who caught it recently heroically continued to work from home.

The latest figures bear this optimism out. As cases surge, the number of those who are ending up in hospital stays much, much flatter.

And all the time, scientists are honing the vaccines but also developing new drugs to make the illness milder.

A few days ago, the Federal Drug Administration in the United States approved a pill developed by Pfizer. The results indicate that the medicine reduces the likelihood of the most severe symptoms by nearly 90 per cent.

None of this means that we are out of the woods yet, or even that we can see the clearing beyond the woods - but we are moving in the right direction.

We take two steps forward and then get the step back with Omicron - it will no doubt happen again but the direction is still hopeful.

We can now imagine how "normal" life might look. Vaccination cuts the chance of both catching the thing and of needing hospital if we do. Tablets mitigate the worst effects.

We adapt our lives, avoiding crowds, wearing masks near people, working from home sometimes, or not travelling on crowded public transport.

We try to forget the wilfully unvaccinated who let the rest of us down.

Our supers have had a very good year. Because the price of shares has risen, the value of the funds has jumped.

The ASX (Australian stock market index of share prices) has risen by 12.6 per cent in the past year. If you have savings as stocks and shares, your wealth will have risen by a lot more than the negligible rate of interest.

The same with the value of homes.

In the past year, prices have gone up by around 25 per cent in Canberra, according to CoreLogic which tracks these things. The rise will be more for houses and slightly less for apartments - but a rise is a rise.

Of course, you can't eat wealth. You can only use it if you turn it into cash, so the rising value of your house doesn't mean much if you stay put (apart from making you feel better).

And rising house prices are bad news for those seeking their first home.

Rising share and house prices mean absolutely nothing to those with out the assets in the first place.

The signs are that rewards for those without assets are rising as well - though not by anywhere like as fast.

The Reserve Bank of Australia is forecasting growth in wages by three per cent in the next two years, faster than it's been for nearly a decade.

And the RBA thinks the economy will grow by five per cent next year, the fastest rate since 1987.

The drought really is well and truly over, and that means farmers are producing bumper crops. Wheat prices have risen by about a quarter over the year. Cotton prices are up by a third. Cattle prices are up by 11 per cent and wool by 14 per cent.

Farmers have a tendency to paint their industry in the worst light - it always seems to be too wet or too dry - but don't believe them this year.

There's going to be an election and that means the prospect of change.

It's the voters' chance to tell the rulers what they think of leaders. That is exciting in itself for the sheer drama of it but also a hopeful renewal of democracy.

This election is up for grabs.

A Newspoll conducted early in December gave Labor a 53-47 lead. Primary votes were 38 per cent for Labor, 36 per cent for the Coalition, ten per cent for the Greens and three per cent for One Nation (13 per cent for the rest). Other polls show Labor ahead.

But that's not the end of the story. Perhaps ominously for Labor, a different poll from the Resolve Political Monitor gave the Coalition more favourable ratings than Labor on specific issues often thought to be crucial to determining voting intentions.

On which party and leader was best to manage the economy, on who was best on national security and on who was best to deal with COVID-19, Mr Morrison and the Coalition were ahead.

Your cheerfulness index will depend on your politics.

But, either way, an election is to be celebrated.