January 2026 Goals

Happy Monday and Happy New Year! We are already five days into January! And it's my birthday! I'm so excited to celebrate my day with my family. I actually started celebrating over the weekend since my birthday is on a Monday. So far, it's been a blast. 2026 is looking good. I'm going to continue to stay hopeful. Before I continue to mention more of this new year and chapter, let's bring it back and quickly recap December.

December was a whirlwind. We did our usual holiday traditions, like going to our city's Christmas tree lighting, and then I made hot chocolate when we got home. We put up our Christmas tree and decorations. Instead of buying one new ornament, we bought three. We went to Raphael's class holiday party at school. We celebrated Gabriel's birthday. Of course, we got him his favorite ice cream cake and a few gifts. We also visited Mami during Christmas week. Overall, December was a good month. Busy, but good.

However, there were some unexpected moments. We found out Gabriel had the flu the day after his birthday, so we had to postpone the extra celebrations. Since he was still under the weather during Christmas week and John didn't feel well either, we had to postpone our breakfast at Mami's on Christmas Day. We ended up visiting Mami the day after Christmas and had a lovely breakfast. We had a low-key Christmas at home, but it was so great. John and I made a nice breakfast, and for lunch I put together a big charcuterie board. We all just grazed for most of the day while the boys played games. I even got to sneak in a much-needed and well-deserved nap. 

Now it's finally 2026 and January! A new year and a new month! With that comes new goals for the month (and for the year) and a new word of the year. (I'll share my word of the year and yearly goals at a later date. But for now, let's recap my December goals and check out my new goals for January.

Recap of December 2025 Goals

• Read 3 books I borrowed from the library: I was still on a Humans of New York kick and read a few more books by Brandon Stanton. I finished reading Humans and then read Tanqueray by Stephanie Johnson and Brandon Stanton. I also read The Legend of the Christmas Witch and The Return of the Christmas Witch by Dan Murphy and Aubrey Plaza. To celebrate the winter solstice, Raphael and I read The Shortest Day by Susan Cooper. 

• Read 1 book I received from NetGalley: I read quite a few good books. I finished reading Little Alleluias by Mary Oliver, Central Park by Cristina Ergunay, and Girl Warrior by Joy Harjo. I was excited to read See One, Do One, Teach One by Grace Farris. 

• Participate in Exhale's December blog hop: I read the prompt but didn't work on it. Although I could feel the creative block that had been plaguing me for months begin to lift, I just didn't have enough time to work on this.

• Try 2 new recipes: I honestly can't remember whether I tried any new recipes, so I'll assume I didn't. 

• Make 2 scrapbook/Project Life layouts: Yikes! I did not work on any layouts, but I did start reorganizing my supplies so I could work on my 2026 album. As for my previous albums and other unfinished layouts, I think I'm going to work on them slowly (maybe pick just one unfinished project to focus on each month), but primarily focus on documenting 2026. 

• Participate in Jo Blaker's Winter Trees daily drawing challenge: I'm disappointed I didn't work on this drawing challenge. Once again, I just didn't have time. December really was a whirlwind, and a few unexpected things happened. By the time I had even a small pocket of time to work on the challenge, I was so discouraged after realizing how many days I had missed that I decided to pass on it.

• Work in my sketchbook/journal: Nope, I did not work in my sketchbook. It wasn't a creative month, but I read a lot. 

January 2026 Goals

• Read 2 books I borrowed from the library

• Read 1 book I received from NetGalley

• Participate in Exhale's January blog hop

• Make 1 scrapbook/Project Life layout

• Work in my sketchbook/journal

• Drink more water

What are your goals for January? How did you do in December?

Thanks for visiting!

Until next time...

Photo by Aly Ko on Unsplash