Wow. It’s finally here. December 31. The last day of 2012. It seems like only yesterday I was writing my January 1, 2012, blog setting my five resolutions for the year, and now it’s time to evaluate how successful I was at achieving those five, seemingly simple, goals.

First, with my writing goal I did achieve some success, but there was also some failure. I wanted to write every day. For the most part, I did actually write something every day. Not always something that would turn out to be anything worth much, but something made it either to paper or to the word processor. Notice, though, that I said “for the most part,” which does mean that there were a few days in 2012 when I didn’t write anything. When that happened, there was usually a pretty good reason, but nevertheless, good reason or not, I can’t claim to have been entirely successful with writing every day. Next, I wanted to post to the blog every day. Again, that didn’t happen. And again, when it didn’t, there were good reasons why – I was on senior trip and had no access to wi-fi to publish or I was sick and in bed for days – but again, good reasons or not, I can’t claim to have been entirely successful with posting to the blog every day. About the best I can claim with these two parts of the writing resolution is that I was more successful with these two areas than I was with the third. The days I spent writing and posting far outnumbered the days I missed. On the third and final part of my writing resolution, though, I can’t claim any real success. I had wanted to work on my project at least twice a week. That didn’t happen by a long shot. Obviously, this resolution needs some tweaking because I would like to finish this project.

Second, with my reading goal, I must finally admit that I did not reach my goal of 75 books over the course of the year. I ended up doing better than I thought I would, but I still fell short of the desired 75. I can take a bit of a hollow victory in the fact that by reaching a total of 67 books, I did set a new record for the number of books I have read in one year. I surpassed the old record by five books. I can feel good about that, but I don’t feel so good about being eight books short and not reaching my goal of 75. This is the point where I’m telling myself that if all those English 100 and AP essays had been bound and in book form, I would have easily surpassed the goal of 75 books. I have read a lot of essays this year. However, student essays don’t count toward the reading goal, so sadly, I have fallen short.

In case you’re wondering what books I read in December that pushed my total up to 67, here’s the list: Bah! Humbug by Heather Horrocks, Christmas Bells by Beverly Nault, The Christmas Tree Treasure Hunt by Joan Campbell, Reflections from a Jesus Follower by Mark Driskill, Home for the Holidays by Christin Lynxwiler, Secret Santa: A Bluegrass Novella by Kathleen Brooks, Miss Kane’s Christmas by Caroline Mickelson, The Angel of 1776 by Jeffry S. Hepple, The Christmas Tin by Roderick Robison, Christmas Future: A Sarah Anne Story by Rita Garcia, The Con Before Christmas by Erik Hanberg, 199 Promises of God by Barbour Publishing, Know Your Bible by Paul Kent, and by Madeleine L’Engle A Wrinkle in Time, A Wind in the Door, and A Swiftly Titling Planet. You may notice a lot of Christmas titles, but that’s what I really like to read in December. Of those, I recommend my favorites: The Christmas Tree Treasure Hunt, The Angel of 1776, and The Christmas Tin. I also recommend Reflections from a Jesus Follower, which should be read in conjunction with the book of Luke from the Bible.

Third, with my weight-loss goal, I totally failed. I had set a goal of losing 20 pounds by the end of the year. When all is said and done, I have lost one. I suppose that’s better than none, but it’s still pretty awful. My daughter has managed to lose more than 50 pounds in just under two years. I’m so very proud of her. I’m going to have to set a goal for 2013 and I’m going to have to make myself meet that goal so she can be proud of me.

Fourth, with my cooking goal, I can claim success. The goal was to try a new recipe every week of the year. As you know, there are 52 weeks in the year, and we tried 85 new recipes. Most of those we thoroughly enjoyed, though there were a handful along the way that we decided we would not be making again. Of course, one could argue that my great success with this goal may have interfered with my weight-loss goal, but I’d have to disagree since regardless of how good each dish tasted, it’s still up to me to have the willpower and know when to stop eating. Given the course of the previous three goals, I’m just glad to be able to claim such success with this one.

Fifth, with my update goal, I can also claim success. I did manage on the last day of every month to provide an update blog to allow you to follow my success. This was probably the easiest goal to keep, but hey, we all need at least one easy goal, right? If nothing else, it can make us feel a little better about ourselves when we don’t achieve some of our other goals.

There you have it, my successes and failures for the year 2012. I do feel bad about those goals that I did not achieve. After all, meeting a goal and achieving success feels much better than having to admit defeat. I do take pride, however, in the goals I managed to meet. So where does that leave me? Right now, it leaves me thinking about my 2013 resolutions. I’m a very competitive person, even if the person I’m competing against is just me. I’ll take what I’ve learned in both my 2012 successes and failures and I’ll create a list of resolutions for 2013, and I’ll do my best to make them all a success.

Failure isn’t always a bad thing. If we learn from it, improvise and make changes, and move forward, then failure can be a good thing. Resolutions aside, overall 2012 had a lot more success than failure, and I’m looking forward to what 2013 holds.