New Years Resolution

Woah woah woah. I know what you are thinking. I mean, here I am, I've got this holiday blog series going and I haven't updated it since around thanksgiving, and I skipped Christmas entirely and now its time for New Year's Day? What gives?

I guess "what gives" is that the holiday posts turned out to be, for me at least, a bit of a disappointment. I mean, I got to talk about Neil Diamond and gripe about Christmas, but it seems that for about a month that is all that everyone DOES. Christmas is either too long or too short, its too secular, its too religious, its too commercial, its not turning out to be the boon our economy expected, etc. etc. All my series did was add to that, and in the end I didn't really want to.

For what its worth, I did have a good Christmas. For me, the really festive part of Christmas runs from Festivus Day (23rd) to Boxing Day (the 26th -- usually a downer, but saved because in Britain they play lots of soccer on Boxing Day and its fun to watch). Chruch on Christmas Eve was great (maybe the best Christmas Eve service I have ever seen), my family managed to come over in spite of the snow and I got to see my Brother for the first time in probably a year, I got to watch my daughter discover the joy that is ripping into holiday wrapping paper, and my wife made the best turkey I have ever had. Ever.

But now that the 27th is looming, its time to think about wrapping up the year. That means its time for New Years Resolutions! I have three:

1. Get more sleep. Right now on a typical night I am getting about 5 to 5.5 hours. Not enough. While everyone recommends 7-8 I unfortunately don't think I have enough time, so I am aiming for 6-6.5 hours everynight.

2. Turn it off. I am going to try to get by this year without CNN or any other 24 hour news network. That also means no more CNN.com. It's a protest against the 24 hour news cycle. I'm going to try to read the paper more and the economist, and I will still listen to NPR. Caveat: if North Korea invades South Korea, CNN is coming on.

3. Lose some weight. Yeah, I hear you laughing. But I really do need to get serious about getting to a healthy weight. I hope to lose a stone this year (that'd be 12 pounds (I think)), and if that goes well maybe another stone next year. I even plan to get a gym membership. Still laughing? Yeah, I thought so.

And that's it, but that's plenty. I don't intend to keep you guys up to date on how any of these resolutions is going (unless something awesome happens in relation to them), but I felt like sharing. It seems like a fitting way to end the holiday series, the first (and last?) that I have ever attempted.

Happy New Year!