I don't normally make New Year's Resolutions because I try to always to always look for ways to improve myself, not just once a year, but right now I feel the need to make not one but TWO resolutions plus I'm starting them a little bit early. My resolutions are as follows:

1) Get fully organized. I have the organizational skills but I've come to the realization that I haven't fully organized my life, or even sufficiently organized my life, here in my new home. When I'm organized I can do anything, but when I'm not organized I can't do anything. Before I can start my own business I need to get everything in my life in order so when my business takes off it will run smoothly. Not only that, but with everything running smoothly I'll be able to continue volunteering in my kids' school, maybe volunteer in the homeless shelter again, get more involved in my church, and continue with my martial arts. Remember all the stuff I did back in Napa? I worked, went to college, volunteered in the school, balloon chased, did all the mommy-hood stuff and more. I accomplished all of that only because I had my life and stuff well organized. When I moved here I sort of took those organizational skills for granted and failed to fully apply them, now I'm going do fully apply my skills!

2) I'm going to make habit a type of prayer that I learned recently from a close acquaintance. He said the prayer is Hindu in origin but it's very universal and fits in well with Christianity. The prayer is very simple, only takes a few minutes, and you're supposed to do it twice daily--in the morning and in the evening. In the morning you meditate and pray on the basic thought of "God, please make me an instrument to do your will," and in the evening you meditate and pray on the basic thought of gratitude. There's a little more to it than that, but that's gist of it. I was doing this prayer during the time of uncertainty when we didn't know if the restaurant would be a-go, and it really helped me a lot. But then when the restaurant was a-go and things suddenly became VERY busy I forgot to do it for a couple of weeks. So now I need to make it habit, part of my daily routine.

When I achieve these two goals I should be able to accomplish just about anything else that I wish to do.

I hope everyone is enjoying their holidays! Happy Boxing Day and Good Kwanzaa. The other day I saw a car with a giant Menorah on top and I thought it was the coolest thing! I wish I could have taken a photo for you, but I was driving and the car was going the other way.

We had a very Merry Christmas. I'll try to give a full report over the weekend but I wanted to share this cool photo that I took. Chad was handing me a flute of champagne and the late afternoon sunlight lit it up so beautifully that I had to take a photo before drinking it.

Today is Alan's birthday party and Chad's grandmother flew into town last night so I need to get started on a lot of cleaning. But first I wanted to share with you a funny thing that happened:

I knew that Chad's parents were going to give the boys some sleds for Christmas so I wanted to buy a pair of snow pants so I could play on the sleds too! I checked Fred Meyers, Walmart, and Target and none of them had snow pants for women. Target did have swim suits...huh? And I bought one. All last year I looked for a nice pair of long-ish black board shorts and I couldn't find any, so when I saw it at Target on Christmas Eve I bought a pair for myself. I won't wear them for five months but I least I know they're available for me when I need them. Right now Chad is at a sporting goods store trying to buy us some snow pants.

I'll catch up with you soon!