Goals - December 2015
From the dining room table where I'm writing this I can see our twinkling Christmas tree, our stockings and wreaths on the two doors in the room. It's our first Christmas as a family of four and Cedric's first Christmas. The first Christmas where we are all here. I keep thinking back to this time last year, being so very pregnant and wondering if we would have our baby by Christmas and whether it would be a boy or a girl!
Dashiell fully understands the magic of Christmas this year, which of course makes it magical for Chris and me. The season is magical for Cedric, too, who knows with his whole little heart that he wants to pull the lights and ornaments off the tree.
Just this week we seem to be finally emerging from a three week family bout of sickness. It has not been magical. Chris got the worst of it, poor guy, and combined with the very early mornings that we run at our house it's been tough. But we hope for healthy weeks ahead!
As much as we can we are trying to slow down. Lots of trips to the park, lots of reading next to the Christmas tree. December will be especially full for us this year and I'm trying to finish Christmas cards and presents to make room in our calendar and my brain for everything else, all while looking for those moments and hours to savor.
I've been brimming with creative energy and ideas but haven't been finding the time to get everything done. I consider this to be a great problem to have. This week I took Monday through Wednesday off work for a personal creative retreat and have been happily/furiously doing as much as I can, from working on a blog design update to planning out my editorial calendar to trying to wrap my head around some bigger projects that I'd love to take on in 2016. I'll end Wednesday with still so much to do and write and create but also with gratitude for being able to make the time to sink into creative work for three days. What a contrast to doing things in fits and starts during pump breaks and after bedtime.
Big things happening in December:
+ Host Chris's best friend for a weekend visit.
+ Chris travels to Hawaii for work. Unfortunately, neither of us are really looking forward to this! Chris will miss a weekend at home plus has a packed travel/meeting schedule so it won't be a relaxing for him. We'll both be glad when he is back home!
+ Christmas in Austin! We haven't been in Austin for Christmas in several years and it will be so special to celebrate the holiday with my family in my childhood home where I experienced Christmas growing up.
+ My 32nd birthday and then Cedric's FIRST birthday! Oh, Cedric, I can't believe it! We'll plan to have a very small but special celebration for my sunshine boy while we are in Austin.
December goals:
+ Send out our Christmas cards. I love our Christmas cards this year! I'll share them soon.
+ Finish all Christmas buying and wrapping. We are keeping things pretty simple and I'm close to being done.
+ Reflect on 2015 & plan goals for 2016. I've been thinking of my 2016 goals for a couple months now already and I'm really excited about them. I have been loving goal-planning in my GET TO WORK BOOK.
+ Prepare travel activities and snacks for our flight to Austin. I think Dash is going to do great on the two hour flight but I'm a bit nervous about wiggly Cedric.
Recurring monthly goals:
+ Exercise at least two times per week. With all the sickness going around I didn't make this goal in the latter part of November. Plus my Orange Theory cancelled their 8 pm classes which was when I was able to consistently go. But I'm hoping to be able to go to some 5 am classes soon (Cedric, please sleep!).
+ Publish to my blog on Mondays and Wednesdays. The more I plan and work ahead and use my editorial calendar the easier this is to accomplish.
+ Maintain podcast recording/production schedule necessary to air a new Girl Next Door Podcast episode every other week. Right now we're trying to record a few extra episodes to put us ahead going into the new year.
+ Maintain podcast recording/production schedule needed to air Matrimoney every other Monday.
+ Download photos off of phone and sort them into folders for Cedric's baby photo book and our 2015 Team Wharton family album. Recently I started using Google Photos to back up and synch photos from my phone. There is a great tutorial about it here. I'm so proud of myself for keeping this up and in early 2016 I'm looking forward to making Cedric's baby album and the Team Wharton album for 2015!
Happy December!
December 2014 - no goals, I was too busy being super pregnant
P.S. adorable new Arizona ornament from the awesome (and local) Citizen Home Decor.