Reliving the Holidays and Goals for 2023

We’re in the middle of that (for me at least) somewhat awkward week in between Christmas and New Year’s. There’s that meme that goes around this time of year, “What day is it? What am I supposed to be doing? I have no idea!” and that’s very apt to how I’m feeling this week. So just wanted to do a quick check-in/recap of our holidays, and what I’m looking forward to in the New Year.

Christmas

We ended up in Bentonville for a whole week leading up to Christmas, which was great! It was so nice to get a change of pace and scenery. Due to the weather, mostly we just hung out around my dad and step-mom’s house, which is beautiful. I started my own nightly tradition of watching Taskmaster before falling asleep. The plan is to re-watch all available seasons in chronological order, so that’s been a lot of fun!

They’ve got the best bird feeder, and a new kitten, so of course we spent a lot of time cuddling with Zoe!

If you find yourself in Bentonville over the holidays, do check out the main city square, which was dazzling with lights! We only spent about five minutes here, as it was coooooold! But it was Christmas Eve so seemed like the thing to do! Joss got hit in the eye with a seatbelt as we were all getting out of the car (accidents happen), so I didn’t get any good pictures of him with the lights. Ah well. The tree lights “danced” to some festive music, so don’t worry, it didn’t have two bare sections the whole time and was very pretty!

We only brought some of our presents there, so when we returned home, we had “second Christmas.” Or as Joss engineered it, “Box Christmas.” He’s a big fan of hoarding and decorating cardboard boxes, so he put all his presents in one box and all of his parents’ presents in the other. Points for creativity, although I’m looking forward to NOT having cardboard boxes in our living room and basement.

New Year’s

I don’t know what we’re doing for New Year’s yet. Here’s TulsaKids’ list of family-friendly New Year’s events: tulsakids.com/ways-to-celebrate-the-new-year-in-tulsa/

I’m thinking about the Mother Road Market Noon Year’s Eve event on Saturday. It includes a science show and balloon drop, and there’s always something good to eat!

Goals for 2023

Parenting

I need to think about this more. My main goal for 2023 is to come up with a more consistent system of consequences. What behaviors (hitting, kicking, etc.) are always inappropriate, and what are the consequences for engaging in those behaviors? I’m thinking about working with this together with Joss, or at least communicating it very clearly with him, so he knows exactly what to expect. I’ve never done a great job about being consistent. Honestly, sometimes I just don’t know what to do!

Thankfully we are connected with a couple of counselors, so maybe we can all come up with a plan together.

Creating

On a more fun note, something I want to do more of in 2023 is acting. Whether by myself for my 50 TikTok followers or in a group, I don’t know. But can at least start by keeping an eye out for opportunities. Also want to become more familiar with music theory so I can write more interesting songs! Instead of just using the same 3-5 chords over and over.

Reading

I may end up blogging about this later, as I usually try to track down different reading programs from local bookstores and Tulsa City-County Library. (Who else is devastated that Eleanor’s Bookshop just closed?!) Last year’s goal of reading 50 books wasn’t too difficult to reach, as I have continued to read a lot of “fluff.” Very enjoyable. This year, maybe the goal can be just to branch out more and read books that will be a little more mentally stimulating/educational. I feel like that was my goal last year too, though. But obviously…it’s been a difficult couple of years, so no judgment!

And I’d love to think more about encouraging Joss to read on his own. Maybe we can have family reading time in the evening or on weekends, before we do our bedtime read-aloud. Any tips?

Health/Financial Health

I’d like to go to the gym twice a week rather than once a week, as has been happening lately. I enjoy the spin bikes, and it’s a nice bit of energizing self-care after spending hours at a desk every day. And it would probably be a good idea to come up with a savings goal. I say this after I just spent the rest of my Christmas money on unnecessary but very tempting Thredup offerings. Definitely need to unsubscribe from their emails. Hmm…More concrete goals would be: 1) Go to the dentist. 2) Set Joss up with a 529 savings account.

One thing I did finally do at the end of 2022 was talk to the doctor about asthma. He didn’t give a specific test, I just told him that I have periodic trouble with wheezing and albuterol seems to help. So now I have my own inhaler prescription, yay!

Well, that’s it for now. Again, everything is kind of just a blur this week, so may need to re-visit this later. Pretty sure my goals just stay vague and exactly the same year to year, but that’s okay.