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It's that time of year again.  The time where I've gorged my face with all sorts of food for the holidays and spent all sorts of money on Christmas presents.  Well, Christmas is over and it's time to pay up.  I always spend the days after Christmas focusing on what I'd like to change and accomplish in the New Year.  This year's resolutions of course are no long just for me but include family resolutions -- goals for all of us in the upcoming year. 

They are as follows:

Eat right -- this one has evolved over the years.  In college it would be a "crash diet!" resolution, which would last all of a few hours because I'd be too hungover on New Years Day not to eat.  Of course those days are gone (the hangovers, and the crash dieting) and I'm more focused on making the right food choices than actually dieting.  I'm really noticing as I get older that I am what I eat, so to speak.  After days of eating Christmas cookies and drinking spiced wine, my body feels it.   I have a 18-week-pregnant belly going and well, there's nothing but me inside that growing belly.  Yuck. 

Also, my vegan sister spent most of Christmas giving me the low-down on why dairy is so bad - and although I don't plan on giving up cheese anytime soon, I do plan on cutting back on dairy products in my life for me and my kids.  More fruit, more green stuff - more healthy, protein-rich foods.

Less stuff -- Santa didn't skimp this year and our house is paying the price.  The floor is literally covered with toys.   It's messy and almost embarrassing, the toy abundance is so gluttonous.   After "Santa" and "Mrs. Claus" did their thing the night before, we stood around the room and just stared open-mouthed.  We made a vow that this upcoming year we're clearing out a bunch of toys and taking them to Goodwill and some local charities.  My kids certainly don't need this much, there are other kids out there that don't have enough, and well, my house could withstand a decluttering in a big way.

Exercise -- Along the lines of my body feeling the whole bad-food-eating thing, I feel it when I don't work out.  It's been two weeks since I've worked out.  I've had one excuse or another but most of them are pretty lame.  Sure, this time of year is hard but still.  And even when I was going, this fall I had really dwindled down on working out.  I plan on getting me, hubby and my four year old back into a more active routine in the New Year.

In fact, one of Santa's presents was ski rental equipment for my four-year-old, who has not yet been on skis.  Both hubby and I skied pre-kids and we hope to introduce our oldest to the joy of skiing this winter.

Teaching my kids about charity -- My Mom was telling me recently about some friends of hers.  When they were younger with kids in the house, their family would skip Thanksgiving every year for themselves.  Instead, they'd wake up and all four of them would travel to the local soup kitchen to serve food to the less fortunate.  I thought, what an amazing gesture and a wonderful lesson for those children growing up.  I hope to find something similar that I can do (at least with my four year old) this year.

That's it for the forerunners.  I'm sure my husband would like to throw in some sort of budget resolution but I'll leave that one up to him - can't take all the fun away from me!

What are yours?