It’s a holiday, and we know what that means: You’re not at the office reading Green Mountain Daily.

Still, this is an opportunity to look back at 2009 and talk about what was important in the political world, both in Vermont and the rest of the country; what we covered on GMD and what we might have missed.

I’ll throw out a few ideas to get things started.

Vermont adopts marriage equality. After taking the lead with the creation of civil unions, Vermont had fallen behind other states in the recognition of same-sex marriage, and this is the year Vermont took the step to full marriage equality.

Douglas vetoes overridden–twice. After being virtually unstoppable despite an overwhelming legislative deficit, this is the year that Democrats, Progressives, and Independents, particularly in the House, were able to get together to override two important Douglas vetoes, on marriage equality (with the help of some Republicans) and the Big Bill.

Five candidates emerge to run for governor. After a lackluster 2008 campaign, in which the Democrats were barely able to field a candidate, five credible Democratic candidates are in the hunt to succeed Douglas. Susan Bartlett, Matt Dunne, Deb Markowitz, Doug Racine, and Peter Shumlin have either officially announced, or are actively campaigning. All are political veterans; almost all have run statewide campaigns before; who will make it to November to challenge Lite Gov Brian Dubie for the top job?

Your thoughts?