Happy January 8th!

I think New Year's is my favorite holiday. In some ways I like it even better than Christmas. Christmas is pretty wonderful, but with so much anticipation and buildup it's hard for the actual day not feel a little fleeting with how quickly it arrives and then departs in the space of a few hours. New Year's on the other hand is just the opposite. Coming only a week after Christmas there hardly seems like much time to anticipate anything, and then when it does come it doesn't leave right away--it's just a beginning. It's a beginning to a better anything and can last the whole year. (or at least a few months). I love the newness of it. I love that you have the chance to do something differently or more perfectly this year no matter how imperfectly you've done it in the past. I guess you could say I'm a big fan of second chances.

So, when I realized we were going to be out of town over New Year's I was a little concerned that I wouldn't be able to pull off the "fresh New Years start" that I so look forward to. I love that we have been able to travel, but in all the traveling we've done I've never been able to master the ability of maintaining much semblance of order or normal in our life away from home. In fact, after about a week of being anywhere outside of the norm, things start feeling a little loosey goosey and I switch from trying to maintain structure to just trying to prevent complete chaos. Needless to say, New Year's came and went this year with hardly a mention of New Years' goals. I hate that I missed the chance to start something January 1st and do it perfectly for the entire year. Missing my big day is a little disappointing but it would be silly to let that keep me from trying to start something new. One of my favorite thoughts comes from a quote recently used by President Uchtdorf, "The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago, the second best time is right now."

The same goes for me. The best time to set my New Year's goals would have been on Jan.1, the second best time is right now. My list of goals is long...it always is, but one of the commitments I am most excited about is my goal to spend some time every day working on this record of our life. I don't know if it's Harlow's warp speed growth, Reed's entry into double digits later this year, or the fine lines on my forehead, but I feel the need to spend more time savoring the "now" of my precious life as morphs too quickly from one phase to the next.

There is not much I do perfectly, but I really hope that this record keeping goal is something this year that I can. Happy January 8th!