…And a Happy New Year!

Hello Sisters!

Thanksgiving and Christmas have both passed us by, and I hope you all have had a wonderful time with your family and friends, successfully avoided the high-school reunions at your local bar, and returned all of the ugly clothes your Aunt Marge sent you. I hope you got everything you wanted for Christmas, including that Michael Kors handbag (I know, it was on my list, too!) While the excitement of all of the past winter celebrations settles down, I hope you realize we’re only a few days away from one of my favorite holidays – New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day.

It may be easy to get caught up in all of the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, but I really love this time when we’re teetering on the edge of a New Year.

For me personally, I like to think of it as a time of reflection on my personal growth within the past year. And after the ball drops (or in the case of the Oklahoma City celebration, rises), it’s time to begin a whole new chapter, which I’ll talk a lot about in my next post.

When we keep track of our lives in such a defined way, it’s hard not to feel nostalgic about the past year. I can say that personally this year has been a doozy – the highs were high and the lows were really low.

Those of you who have recently graduated (and even those of you who haven’t) can definitely agree that this is such an interesting season of life for the post-grad girl.

I’m just figuring out how to function on my own, without money from my parents, a sorority house chef to cook me dinner, or a roommate to remind me to do my laundry or wash the dishes.

But I’m also figuring out that I actually like getting up early and maybe I’ve discounted the taste of my own cooking in the past – in fact, I much prefer it to Taco Bueno’s black hole of calories (a.k.a. Mexi Dips and Chips)

The end of the year is a time to think about all of the opportunities you’ve been given in the past year, all of the highs and the lows, the pitfalls and the mistakes. These few days, try to thank the friends and family that have been there through it all and reach out to the ones that haven’t.

I also like to look back at my resolutions list. Sometimes it can be quite depressing (who really flosses, anyway?) but sometimes it can be quite encouraging (I finally ran a 5k this year!). Look at the things you did and look at the things you didn’t do. Now throw away the list because it’s a new year. 

I hope you all take this time and get ready to embark on another fabulous year! What are your resolutions for 2012? Did you keep the ones from 2011? What do you do to reflect on this past year?

Mal xoxo