Christmas is over.
I am happy to see it go, and even more happy to have the annual chore of decorating and undecorating over with. I'm oddly more satisfied when the decorations are put away than I am when we are finished decorating. If that makes me a Scrooge then so be it.
Don't get me wrong, Christmas was fun. We had great meals surrounded by family and gave my kids fun gifts, including a basketball goal which I hope will lead to years of HORSE and good times outside.
It was everything Christmas was supposed to be.
But I'm still glad to see it go. I'm ready for a new beginning. The Peach Bowl. 2015. A fresh start.
I love fresh starts. They're like brand new notebooks with crisp, clean pages. Anything can happen on that white paper.
The year 2015 sits in front of us like a blank sheet in that new notebook, and that excites me.
After the Christmas decorations were put away and the kids fed I got a jump on that fresh start Sunday night.
For me a fresh start will mean spending more time nourishing my soul with books, literature and the Bible, less time mindlessly surfing Twitter (guilty) and I hope to acquire more skill at balancing the budget - no easy task with four kids. Also, my yearly marathon awaits. I think this would be my 8th consecutive year, but I've got a lot of training to do. A LOT of training.
For OMRebelNation.com I plan to renew my dedication to daily writing, mostly about Ole Miss, but occasionally about other interests and inspirations.
"Other interests?" you may ask. "What are those?"
Well there are several, and in no particular order: Running, my Dogs, Kids, Movies, Cooking, Restaurants, Beer and my Faith. I've struggled with a little bit of writer's block this fall. You might have noticed. Some of it was stress induced. I'm always way too busy. But part of the problem is that I've been blogging about Ole Miss for five years and I've gotten a little bored. Don't worry. I certainly don't want or plan to stop writing about the Rebels, but I hope that by writing about other interests it'll positively influence my Ole Miss blogging, and that would be a good thing.
One great benefit to having my own blog is the freedom to experiment. Some experiments work. Some don't. But there's never any harm in trying. I still enjoy writing, and look forward to another year of it. It seems like every year the blog has existed it's grown more and changed along with the times. I look forward to seeing what happens in 2015.
Also, I enjoy your readership, and want to thank you for stopping by often. This blog wouldn't be nearly as fun without you. I look forward to interacting with you more in 2015 on Twitter, Facebook and maybe even the poor neglected message board.
Thanks for reading.
Let's have a great 2015!
Hotty Toddy,
Jake