Resolutions, end of year review, you know the drill.

Oh, the intentional blog-silence over the Christmas/New Year's holidays. How I both loved you and loathed you. It was nice to take a break from blogging (not that my blogging has ever been accused of being consistent or prolific -- I had only 6 posts in December, whoops) but I'm ready to catch back up and be more consistent this year.

Yep, I'm one of those saps who still makes New Year's resolutions and goals and picks a word for the year and a saint and all that jazz. The prospect of the new year with a blank slate staring ahead of me just is one of those things I will never tire of. So let's write them all down in one blog post just for remembrance's sake, why not??

1. Go to Confession once a month. 

I fell off the going-to-Confession-regularly bandwagon pretty hard this last year. It was a lot more convenient to go during college, when I could walk to church and there were many hours per week I could fit it into my schedule. This last year being at home, with only one car between the two of us, put Confession on the back burner. Anytime I was out and about by myself it was for necessary (and sometimes not necessary) grocery & Target runs, and never at a time for Confession. And I realized I really need it for the health & well-being of my spiritual life. So I'm committed! Once a month!

2. Do the full 12 weeks of BBG, and make it one month consistently on THM at 90%.

I purchased Kayla Itsines' BBG last year on a whim, while I was in the midst of Insanity. Well, my 3 months of Beachbody on Demand ran out, and I started BBG afterwards sort of half-heartedly 5 weeks before Christmas. This year I'm committed to doing the 12 weeks solid with no breaks and no excuses! I'm excited because it's definitely a different challenge in comparison to the P90X3 and Insanity I completed in 2015 -- lots more body weight exercises, more long-distances, different things I wouldn't normally do. I also have been doing THM on and off for a few months now, and after the holidays I need a reset on my health -- but I'm not overly confident so I'm shooting for a month straight at 90%. ;)

3. Read 35 books, 5 of them religious/spiritual reading.

I read a little more than 25 books in 2015, but I wasn't really challenged to read that amount, although setting that number in January of last year sure felt like a lot. Then I remembered that I used to read upwards of 20 novels per semester for school during college and I checked myself back into reality. (A post coming up this week about the books I read this year, don't fret.) So this year I'm looking to read 35 books! I'd like to add some more spiritual reading in this year, because I think I read solely novels/non-fiction this year and I missed it.

4. Sew more. Quilt more. Knit more. Embroider more.

I've missed crafting lately. The cold weather has finally hit around here, which always gets my creative fingers itching, but I lacked the motivation the last few months. I don't know what it was but it wasn't there for me. Now I'm ready to get back into it! I might as well be doing something with my hands as David and I binge-watch a lot more TV this year... (we should probably cut back on that too...) Plus I got a new sewing machine for Christmas from David and I'm seriously itching to try it out!

My one little word for the year is: grateful. I spent a few weeks contemplating if I'd pick a word this year, and I finally landed on one I can really get behind. I have a bad habit (don't we all?) of flying through life without looking around me and appreciating all that I have. I'm going to try to spend time each week listing off things I'm grateful for (whether or not that makes it to the blog has yet to be determined) so that by the end of 2016 I can really feel like I noticed and was grateful for everything that happened the whole year. (Lofty goals! I know! But I can try!)

My saint of the year is St. Hilary of Poitiers. When I clicked on Jen's saint generator, I thought he was a woman...but I was mistaken! St. Hilary was a bishop in the 4th century who dealt with Arian heretics, and was named a doctor of the church in the 1800s. His nickname was the Hammer against Arianism (so cool!). He's the patron saint of snake bites, mothers, and sick people (dear Lord please let there not be a snake bite in my future for 2016 -- mothers/mothering I can handle, snake bites NO.)

This Christmas was a whirlwind as they always are. I'm going to photo dump to try and remember what we did this year!

Christmas Eve and day were spent on my side, including a beautifully easy Christmas Eve Mass at 7 p.m. that Kate was an angel throughout. She was teething and cranky so we gave her a little Tylenol ahead of time and wow, best idea we've ever had as parents. She got an A+ for her behavior that night and earned the 5 cookies and 2 pieces of chocolate she had the next day at Christmas dinner.

(P.S. This Old Navy swing dress I'm wearing has been the best $12 I've spent on a dress in a very very long time. I can't find it online anymore but there are probably some left in stores...GO BUY IT NOW.)

Kate's adorable Christmas dress is from Target, and her leopard print booties are BabyGap. Cute pigtails courtesy of her still-short hair which can finally sort of fit into a ponytail but then never stays in one for very long, so pigtails it is.

Blocks on blocks on blocks at Granny and Grandfather's house, wearing some stinking adorable elf slippers from her Uncle Sam. I have memories at Christmastime of my mom breaking out these same blocks for us to play with!

All dolled up to go pick up Aunt Lucy from the airport. I made the mistake after this wearing (and very very dirtying) of her cute sweatshirt of washing and then drying it, and the fur around the hood looks ruined...anyone have any tips on how to restore it??? I haven't tried washing it again but maybe washing and line-drying? Combing it out??

After our extended family reunion, which I have no pictures of, we traipsed over to Columbus to spend time with David's family. We played upwards of 6 games of Catan (evidenced in the photo above) and unfortunately I didn't win any of them. Kate was most of the time happy to play with an incomplete set of regular cards while we played, which was super nice.

Nothing quite like a sleeping baby at church underneath a handsome husband's chin. ;)

Watching the puppy and kitten playing outside in the cold with Uncle Michael in Atkinson.

Asleep in Atkinson. Let me tell you, I am happy to be back home again in our own separate rooms. Sleeping in the same room as Kate is nice for the pictures but hell when she mumbles and turns over constantly throughout the night, waking you (me) up.

Yikes, that was a long enough post I think so Il'l end it there. I'll be back later with a wishlist book list for the year as well as a recap of my last year in reading...and maybe a post in pictures about our year as a whole. By the way, how is it already 2016???

Have a great Monday everyone. I'll be bingeing the new Parenthood season on Netflix (FIN-A-LLY) and probably starting to put away Christmas decorations tonight.
HG