Well, is everyone ready to unveil their New Year’s resolutions? Last year mine was to try. Just try to do better. By design, that’s a wide enough definition to allow for success. And with a semi-objective view, I’ve succeeded.

This Christmas Eve, God called home one of the best, Betty Mahaffey, my friends Laura and Katie’s mom. In making the announcement about her passing, Katie wrote “She lived exuberantly, laughed freely, and loved wastefully.” I immediately thought two things: what a great tribute and wow, that describes a life well lived.

So this year, I’m going to aim to do the same.

Live exuberantly – full of unrestrained enthusiasm or joy. This will be a challenge but there’s joy in most days. It’s just a matter of recognizing it or re-framing a situation to see it.

Laugh freely – this I truly have down but maybe I’ll work on laughing with others versus at them. But reality-TV stars are still fair game.

Love wastefully– honestly, why not?

Of course, I’m taking on this hefty resolution in a year that has an extra day. Re-framing that, it’s an extra day of joy. See, I’m off to a great start.

Wishing everyone a very happy, healthy, and joyful New Year. According to a number of recent postings on Facebook, it looks like a year of love, money and in some cases, babies, for many of my friends. I can’t wait to share it all with you!