I hope you all had a fantastic Christmas and a Happy New Year! We were able to spend several days with my husband's side of the family in Texas doing nothing but catching up, eating things we shouldn't, and just having fun. The fact that I didn't have to cook, clean, and entertain anyone made it even better! Hehe. But we seriously had a great time. We played hard outside, enjoyed our brand new goodies and played with toys inside, decorated Christmas tree cakes, and shared lots of laughs we've unfortunately missed out on due to distance.

 On New Year's Eve, we spent time with my family doing pretty much the same thing... eating, playing games, opening presents from Christmas, and watching the New Year's ABC program. Eric and I rang in the new year with a champagne toast, called it a night, and ate the all important cabbage and black eyed peas the next day!




 Now that the holidays are over, let's talk about New Year's Resolutions. Yep, it's that time again! I had a hard time choosing only one item to focus on, so I decided upon several resolutions that focus on different aspects of my life. Here are the resolutions that I have ultimately decided upon:

 1. Grow my photography business! I started getting my portfolio established in January of last year. I had a slow start due to school and lack of time, but I ended the year on a high note with multiple photo sessions during the fall and several inquiries on weddings this year. I also expanded my services to hopefully attract more customers!

 2. Keep up the exercise and watch my eating habits! I'm not even going to lie. I've fallen off the wagon with my clean eating. I can't resist holiday food. It's my biggest weakness! But I've done very well with my exercising! Thankfully, I've worked out a minimum of 4 days per week with very few breaks for the entire year. Consistently working out was my resolution for 2018, and I can actually say that I kept it! Hoorah! Next workout goal is to crush P90x!

3.  Get better about providing feedback to my belly dance students, get more confident with my own dancing ability and teaching belly dance technique, and practicing more consistently! I have a really difficult time calling out people who are doing something wrong. I would like to get better about providing more feedback to my dance students as I know they are wanting to improve themselves in order to move on to the next class. I also need more confidence in my dance ability as when I know that I've made a mistake, I tend to withdraw into myself instead of letting it go, looking it at as a lesson learned, and not letting it hold me back from sharing myself with the audience for the remainder of the dance/set. I also really need to practice more consistently... Review one song daily. One song is maybe... MAYBE 4 minutes long. Surely I can dedicate 4 minutes to review one song once a day.

So those are my resolutions for the year! My friend and owner of Desert Sky Dance Studio likes to choose one word at the beginning of the year as sort of a focus point for the year. My word would be FREEDOM! Ultimate freedom from the 9-5, freedom from stress and worry, freedom from the confines of my own mind. I had a great start in 2018, and I'm determined to finish it in 2019!

What are your resolutions for the New Year?