Goals. Again.

I always say I'm not going to set any resolution-type goals, but, then I do.

I said I wasn't going to, again, this coming year.  But, seriously, within the same thought process, I set two.  Ok, three.

1.  No pop.  All year.  Achievable? Totally.

2.  No candy.  All.  Year.   Achievable? You know, I had a friend, once, who did this... her mom paid her $100 for succeeding.  Seeing as I don't even realizing I'm eating candy until I'm reaching for my second or third piece, this one will take some focus and constant reminding.  So, I'm telling the world.  I'll tell the cashier at Walmart, too, if I have to.  I will do this.

3.  Our library is having a challenge to read one book per week, this year.  It has to be 200+ pages long, any genre, including young adult.  I think this would be super cool to do.  Now to find the time...

That's all.  Three goals.  Easy (ish) ones.

Happy New Year!

******  Added, later  ******

Also, I have a gratitude journal I'm going to write in, every day.

There.  I'm done.

Christmas is Good.

Every year, I try to do something creative for our cool advent train.  (We still love it, Dan and Cherstin!)  I get a few gripes about some of them, but do I care? Nope.  Try and stop me.

This year, in hopes of keeping the true spirit of Christmas alive, I came up with random acts of kindness for our family to do.

The creativity started out fresh, but thanks to a new job, followed by a quick change of heart/mind leading to quitting said job, followed by a tonsillectomy for a small patient, with a whole bunch of sharp chest pain-causing stress in between, the creativity started lagging towards the end.

We left signs of Joy, Peace and Hope in people's yards.  We called random numbers and sang, "We Wish You a Merry Christmas".  We left many gifts of symbolic Christmas cheer on many unsuspecting door knobs.  We stuck fun window clings on someone's car windows.  We brought treats to a lonely neighbor that were received by very big hugs.  We even rang bells throughout neighborhoods on Christmas eve.

The point of all this was to help the wise men follow the star to find Christ on Christmas day. 

They made it, slowly but surely, getting stuck a few times due to obstacles of contention or forgetfulness of the mover.  But they made it.  

Santa always leaves baby Jesus under our tree as the first gift of Christmas. 

How truly grateful I am for that gift.  

I don't know how I would've survived the last few weeks without Him.  

I'm looking forward to a new year, hopefully a soon-found new job, and new challenges. 

Yes, I said challenges.  New ones.  Mostly because the I'm so done with the old ones.  ha ha ha  

But one doesn't become strong by lifting the light things, do they?

Merry Christmas.  :)