I love the New Year. I hate January but I love the new year. I love roaming around during that week between Christmas and New Year’s (my favorite week of the year), when all bets are off, gluttony is king and adults can kind of pretend they’re a kid on Christmas break. The whole world slows down a bit – and we need it.

And somewhere in that haze, we’re allowed time to asses the year. How did we do? How did the world do? Was the year kind? Was it a beast? I love this moment to breathe and reflect.

As someone who journals regularly, I’m big on reflecting anyway. I just think it’s important to know why we do the things we do and we can’t know that if we never stop to ask ourselves the questions.

Naturally, New Year’s resolutions appeal to me. Not in a ‘flogging myself for not being good enough way,’ but in a ‘when I reflect at the end of the upcoming year, what would I like to have happened?’ What would a successful, fulfilling year look like next New Year’s Eve?

It’s about intention, having your own north star, knowing what you’re working toward. We do it at work every year. What are our goals? Typically even broken down by quarters Q1 – Q4. But we tend not to do that in our personal lives.

One of my goals for the year is to force myself to cook a bit more. I say it that way because it’s something I don’t think I’m good at and it occurred to me that maybe that’s because it’s something I never do. When I’m home alone, it seems like a lot of work for just me. And when Victoria is with me, we’ve often already eaten at my folks’ or we just microwave a bean burrito (I also give her a vegetable from time to time).

So, the goal: Prepare one dinner from scratch a month. Ideally, this would also include having a friend over as well.

I started early in December, cooking a lemon rice chicken soup for some friends.

January – I made chicken and dumplings! It was a practice, which is what I need. I just need to be able to go slowly with no audience and no pressure and keep reminding myself that I’m learning a new skill. I was by myself but I did it anyway. I put on some music, poured a little bit of wine and made a very tasty dinner (that I’ll likely repeat for a friend this weekend).

Now I get to cross it off my list for the month as something I’ve accomplished. So when NYE rolls around for 2024, I’ve got one meal in the bucket!