First of all: MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Clockwise from left: Christmas eve at my parent’s house, Christmas day with Tim’s family, in front of the tree at our house, and our post-Christmas lobster!
I hope all my reader (singular, hahaha) had a great holiday. Mine was wonderful, though it felt really short. The older I get, the more it seems like December is over in just a few days. This time it was exacerbated by circumstances at work – I started yet ANOTHER new job! Yep, if you’re counting, that makes four this year.
It also makes the very first item on the list to get crossed off!
27. Get A Meaningful Job
If you’d asked me what I thought I’d cross off first, I definitely didn’t think it’d be this one. That’s why it was so far down the list – I was going to give it a few years. This was an intervention by fate and circumstance.
Yep, I realize it took 11 months to knock out one of my goals. I’m okay with that. It was a crazy year and I accomplished a LOT, it just wasn’t all stuff on the list. I did make some progress on a few more goals:
1. Learn how to blow glass – I researched places around AZ where I could learn to blow glass and even signed up for classes. I had to cancel when I changed jobs the first time, but at least I know where to go when I’m ready.
13. Fix my credit – I looked at my credit report and opened a credit card this year. There’s still a lot more I need to research and act on, but it’s slowly going up, which is the right direction.
17. Build or repair something – I helped fix up a whole house! We painted every room, put floors in ourselves, and we’ll be changing out all the doors soon. It’s not quite what I had in mind when I thought of the goal, but it’s more than I’d ever done before.
20. Volunteer – I volunteered twice this year, first with a food bank and then with Junior Achievement. Both experiences were wonderful and I plan to do a few more volunteer events next year.
28. Read 300 books – I read 15 books this year, which is certainly not a personal best. I still need to review 100 Years of Solitude and Night Circus… maybe I’ll make the reviews shorter as time goes on.
30. Write and work on this blog – Though I wasn’t as prolific or consistent as I wanted to be, I am working on it!
My birthday is a little less than 3 weeks away and I plan to cross one thing off that very night – karaoke! Who knows what else the new year will hold…