Our very lived-in kitchen, with the reminder "the best is yet to come," felt fitting for this new year.

Happy 2024, friends! The new year started on a Monday, which I love. On Wednesday the kids returned to school so in a way it felt like the first "real" day of the new year. Routine seems to be a very good thing for my family so I'm glad to be getting back to it. So far January is already feeling much more relaxed than the holidays.

We had a really busy and full holiday break. There was a lot of fun but it didn't feel super relaxing. We've also been dealing some big parenting challenges which I know I've mentioned and am being intentionally vague about (for my kid's privacy) but it was a bit of a gray cloud over our break.

This week, once the house was quiet, I spent some time updating my holiday notes for myself. In the past I've scheduled an email to myself for mid-October with holiday notes from the previous year but now I'm keeping a Holiday Notes page in Google Docs. (Do you do something like this?) This year I noted the things that Trader Joe's runs out of that I should grab as soon as I see them (gingerbread people cookies, dark chocolate mint stars, and the 12 days of beauty boxes) and I wrote that we have, have to finish planning Cedric's birthday party by early December. The post-Christmas birthdays are tough, friends! I also wrote down a few holiday decor items that I want to buy ahead of next holiday season, like a new lit garland for our back doors.

Yesterday Chris and I started our annual summit planning where we make goals and plans for the year ahead. I love that we do this and we both feel so energized for the year afterwards.

I'll look forward to sharing my 2024 goals soon, hopefully next week. I'm still thinking through them and my main focus lately has been preparing for my goals workshop on Sunday (!).

Big things happening in January:

+ The kids go back to school.

+ Host my first Your Year to Shine: A Goals Workshop. I'm really excited and the good kind of nervous.

+ Travel to Portland to visit my friend. Who visits Portland when it's at its coldest and rainiest? This sun-and-heat-drenched gal!

+ Chris visits a friend in San Francisco for two nights.

January goals:

+ Complete our 2023 photo book. I just have to add photos through the holidays and I'll be done.

+ Complete my 2024 goals and share them here.

+ Buy Valentine's stuff. An email from my past self landed in my inbox this week reminding me to buy Valentine things early and decide now on any family activities. Thanks, past Kelsey! Also, I've had empty shoe boxes in my closet for months for school Valentine boxes so that I'm not caught off guard!

+ Choose photos for our front room gallery wall. A decor project I've wanted to do for so long and plan to complete (finally!) this month.

+ Start collecting older family photos for family gallery wall. Another decor project this year. I have some photos that I'd like to use and for others we need to ask Chris's parents and my parents for copies of photos.

+ Declutter and organize our bedroom closet. Chris and I are both so eager to do this! I'm planning to "treat" myself to this next week after my goals workshop is over, and I'm not being sarcastic. This is something I'm honestly looking forward to LOL.

+ Complete my first workout push week. I'll share more about this in my annual goals but on the last week of each month I plan to add an extra workout or two for a "push" week.

I hope you find good things in January, friends!

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