The best is yet to come!

Happy New Year!!  I hope that you had a wonderful New Year's Eve, spent eating delicious food, sipping cold champagne, reflecting on the year behind you and anticipating the year ahead!.  

Brian and I spent a wonderful week with my family in Texas for Christmas, and flew back to Boston on Monday night.  We landed around 11:45pm and I had to work New Year's Eve until noonish, so we knew that we had big plans last night to do a whole lot of NOTHING that night.  I wanted to be upset and "Oh, we're so darn old!" but I honest to God couldn't wait to put on my fancy yoga pants and have drinks on the couch with my man.  

When I got out of work, Brian picked me up and we had a nice little lunch at Panera then headed to the movies to see American Hustle.  Honestly?  I may have just been overtired, but I didn't think it was quite as good as everyone is raving.  The cast is phenomenal, and it's a great story, but it just didn't do it for me.  Once we were home, we spent the rest of the evening on the couch, just as I'd hoped, with wine, champagne, and Indian takeout... just what the doctor ordered!  

Today we did very little of anything other than watching football, taking down Christmas decorations, and giving the apartment a deep clean.  As much as I love decorating for the holidays, I start to feel super claustrophobic and just want it GONE by a certain point.  That certain point this year for me was when we walked in the front door late Monday night to piles of gifts from Christmas with Brian's family two weeks ago, with three full suitcases from our trip trailing behind us.  I about cried from the suffocating "There's SO MUCH STUFF and NOT ENOUGH ROOM and I HATE THIS APARTMENT IT'S SO SMALL" feeling that rushed over me (I'm the most rational and undramatic person in the world... promise).  Thankfully I got a grip and just started cleaning and reorganizing and everything had a spot by dinnertime last night.

And now I sit here, typing my way into 2014.  I think that it's safe to say that 2013 was not The Year of Blogging for me.  You would think that I would have had loads and loads to chat about, and truthfully, I did-- I started a new job, ran a marathon, GOT ENGAGED... it was a wonderful, blessed year.  In retrospect, I wish that I would have blogged a little bit more to have the memories logged somewhere other than my own head, but it is what it is.  I just didn't feel that pull to write as often as I would have liked, and there's nothing worse than writing something just to put words down (unless you're reading those forced words-- ick, and apologies).  

While I'm not great at making and keeping resolutions, I do have a handful of goals that I would like to stick with and achieve this year.  I do best when I work off of a plan, and 2014 is going to be a fantastically wonderful doozy of a year, so the more guidelines that I have to follow, the better.

1. Get Healthy and Fit.  There are few things that motivate a girl more to get healthy and fit than the thought of wearing a wedding dress in front of your family and friends, and wearing a bikini for a week afterwards in some tropical paradise on your honeymoon.  My main focus is to truly change my eating and health habits, so that this is a lifestyle change, and not just a wedding diet.  I'm doing a serious evaluation of my eating habits and am working on doing an overhaul of everything.  There are some things that I can easily cut out and stick with (tea instead of coffee, sweets at night) and there are other things that I know I'll struggle with (seriously cutting back on carbs, WINE), so I'd really like to find a balance in everything that has sacrifice (I'm not delusional in thinking I can keep doing what I'm doing now and lose weight) and splurges every once in a while, to keep me sane.  It's super important to me to make the changes now and fine-tune them over the next 11 months, so that I'm comfortable and happy to continue with those changes going forward, into newlywed life (squee!!).

2. Read More.  I honestly watch way more television than is necessary, and most of the time, I'm not even paying attention to what's on.  There are a handful of shows that I look forward to and enjoy, but for the most part, it's mindless background noise that we turn on just to have something going while we cook and eat in the evenings.  I absolutely love to read, and I love few things more than curling up on the couch with a good book.  I'm aiming to read two books a month for the next year, which is definitely do-able for me.  I've never read the Harry Potter books because I wanted to read the actual printed version, not on a Kindle, so I've put it off and waited, saying I'll buy the books someday.  Well, my fabulous fiance gave me the entire set for Christmas, and it blew me away.  Every once in awhile he comes out of left field with an incredibly thoughtful gift that makes me fall for him all over again.  So, I'd like to read the entire series, as well as an additional book-- once I figure out my reading schedule, perhaps I'll share it here.  I'm always open to new suggestions as well!

3. Reconnect with Family and Friends.  Living so far away from the people who are closest to me, it's hard to stay in touch as much as I would like to.  There are definitely times when I don't return calls or maybe don't pick up the phone (I know, it's shameful) because I'm not in the mood to chat, and I swear I'm going to call the person back, time gets away from me, and it doesn't happen.  I want to focus on making that extra effort this year to send a funny card in the mail, call out of the blue just because... really make myself available to my people.

4. Plan My Wedding!  Well, this isn't so much a resolution as it is a MUST DO, but I cannot wait to plan the fun parts of our wedding!  We have 11 months, and are sitting pretty as of now-- the big things are booked and we're getting to the fun part of choosing the fun little details that will really make the day special.  I'm probably going to be somewhat annoying and do the occasional "Wedding Wednesday" blog post, but I also don't want to share too terribly many details-- some things have to be a surprise, right?!  It will definitely be a high point of our year, and I'd like to blog about the experience as much as possible, just to be able to look back and laugh at the times I had a breakdown over tying tiny ribbons or putting our ceremony programs together (I assure you, there will be those moments).  I think it's safe to say that this will be the highlight of my year :)

5. WRITE.  My heart is in writing-- always has been, (hopefully) always will be.  I would like to focus on both blog writing and other writing that I've been working on in my spare time.  I keep saying "Someday I'll work on that project" but it's becoming more and more obvious that "someday" comes and passes a lot faster as I get older.  This is a big commitment, but I feel like there are few things in life that I can completely own as my own, something created from my own thoughts and experiences, and that is absolutely something that I would like to be able to claim.  So, here's to a word-filled year!

I love the start of a new year.  There's something so fresh and exciting, and everything is so positive and full of hope and expectations for what's to come.  My life is at a wonderful point right now, and I'm so excited to see how this year plays out for me personally, in my relationship with Brian, with family and friends... it's going to be a fantastic 2014!