Resolutions Day 8 & 9: Family & Friends

Good morning! The day after Christmas... it's always a bit bittersweet. 364 more days until Christmas, 2011.

I don't know about you, but the past 365 days have flown by. What a year! Full of some major highs and major lows. But as 2011 gets closer, I find myself just... excited. Excited for all of the possibilities that 2011 holds.

And maybe for the first time ever, I'm not sad Christmas is over, or that we have 364 days until the next one.

I'm ready for a slow year- a year where anything is possible.

The past week, I've been regularly blogging about my resolutions for 2011- 15 of them, to be exact. So, today, we're onto resolutions 8 & 9. (Just scroll down the page to see resolutions 1-7!)

Resolutions 8 & 9 are very similar, so I'll join them into one statement:

Make time with my family & friends a bigger priority.

This seems very obvious- and I bet it's on everyone's list this year. And the year before. And the year before that.

In fact, it probably seems odd to make that statement a "resolution" at all. It's not a chore, or a commitment. It's in fact my greatest joy in life, time spent with family and friends.

But I work very long hours, AND I live in a different city than my family. So it can be challenging to find the time to get away for a weekend in Plano or the lakehouse. And even though I live near most of my friends- it's never easy to find time to get together.

We all know life gets busy and hectic, and then... before we know it... 364 days have passed and it's Christmas again.

But excuses are just that, and there is nothing more precious in life than my family. And spending time with my closest friends is such a blessing.

So, resolutions 8 & 9 are to make that a bigger priority. I am resolving... committing... promising... and looking forward to lots of lakehouse trips with the family. Lots of dinners and happy hours. Lots of coffee dates and long-distance phone calls.

These are the things that matter most in life- and will always have a place on my "resolutions" list.

This week I will wrap up my 15 resolutions for 2011 "series." There will be some surprising resolutions, some not-so-surprising ones... and some scary ones. :)

2011, here I come!