Goodbye, 2022! Hello, 2023 😊
How to say goodbye to the old year and welcome to the new one!
Bonus: Make-Up Girl Chat THIS THURSDAY - This Time On Google Meet!
Hello friends. Last night we had some technical difficulties with Zoom which prevented many of you from joining our girl chat, and that broke my heart. I’m so sorry that happened and to make it up to you, we will be doing ANOTHER girl chat this Thursday at 8:30 PM EST! I’d love to see everyone’s beautiful faces again - our community is so wonderful, it’s a blessing to get to know you all better.
We will no longer be using Zoom for our calls. It has proven to be a faulty platform, and I never want what happened last night to happen again. Instead, we will try Google Meet - and if we don’t like that as a platform, we will switch to something better. I want you all to have the best user experience here at Classically Abby, and anything less is unacceptable. See you on Thursday!
This Month’s Movie Club Selection!
This month we will be watching The Young Victoria. If you’d like to watch it with your friends, have them join the fun by becoming premium subscribers!
This Month’s Book Club Selection
Book Club is meeting NEXT WEEK on Thursday 1/5/2022 at 8:30 PM EST. This month we are reading fiction (we switch up month-to-month), and I’m excited to get into the festive spirit. The book we will be reading is…The Christmas Bookshop! I chose something fun and easy to read as we get into the holiday spirit. I hope it makes us all feel warm and cozy!
What You Might Have Missed At Classically Abby…
Quote of the Week:
“I learned a long time ago that trying to micromanage the perfect vacation is always a disaster. That leads to terrible times.” - Anthony Bourdain
Your Weekly Laugh
Things I’ve Been Loving: Fitbit Sense
I love this Fitbit! It keeps track of my fitness goals, links to my phone for texts and calls so that if I leave my phone in the other room my husband can still get ahold of me, and has a ton of other great features. I highly recommend it, especially as we move into the new year!
Welcome to Classically Abby!
I'm a wife, mama, opera singer, entrepreneur, YouTuber, and your guide to becoming the classic woman you've always wanted to be! Follow me on YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter to see how! And together, let's be classic.
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Happy Tuesday friends! I hope you all had the merriest of Christmases and the happiest of Hanukkahs. I hope you all gave and received gifts that meant a lot to you, and I hope you all spent some cozy time snuggled up with your loved ones. Jacob, Mr. Baby, and I are currently on vacation in Miami, and we are navigating this unexpected cold weather that threw a wrench into our plans! Of course, I know many of you are struggling with dangerously cold temperatures, so I’m sending love and prayers in your direction. We are just chilly over here, thank God. But our beach vacation has quickly turned into a rainy day situation - which has its upsides too. So we are spending lots of time playing board games, which has my husband very happy!
Can you believe it’s almost 2023?? We are just around the corner from the new year, and I can’t wrap my head around how quickly time is passing. Plus, it’s pretty crazy to think that we are 23 years away from the year 2000. That will always shock me. And the fact that Mr. Baby was born NINE MONTHS AGO? That’s insane!
As we approach the end of a cycle around the sun, I think most of us think of the coming year as a fresh start. We want to turn over a new leaf and grow and change in a positive direction. There is something so refreshing about turning over a page that says 2022 and seeing a clean and shiny 2023 at the top of your calendar. So today, I want to discuss five ways we can be intentional in our approach to 2023. Let’s do our best to make the best plans possible for the new year and become even more classic along the way!
Reflect on the good you did. It’s very easy when we approach the end of the year to immediately think about the things we need to change and fix. But I think it’s also really important to think about the things we did that we would like to continue doing or do more of! For example, if you began to participate more in your community this year or get out of your shell and socialize more than you had in the past, give yourself a pat on the back. Write down all the things that you think made this year great, and all the things you did that make you feel good about yourself. It’s important to recognize our own achievements so that we want to continue making good choices. Celebrate the positive actions you took to bring yourself and others joy, and make sure to continue those actions in 2023.
Reflect on what you can improve on. Okay, now that you have thought about the good things you did this past year, you can think about the ways you’d like to improve. Perhaps you want to be better about your technology use. Perhaps you’d like to pray once a day or give charity more frequently. Perhaps you realize that you haven’t been as kind to the people around you as you could have been. As you critique yourself, be kind to yourself, too. Don’t tear yourself down in the meanest terms possible. Look at your faults logically so that you can think about ways to fix them rather than focusing on their existence at all. It’s important to recognize ways that we can be better, but it doesn’t have to be done in an aggressive, self-demeaning way. Instead, think about how you would help a friend improve and show that same goodwill toward yourself.
Make actionable goals for the new year. I learned about this concept last year and it really helped the way I approach new year’s resolutions. Instead of making goal-based aims, such as “lose 20 pounds” or “eat healthier,” make actionable goals. “Walk for 30 minutes each day” is an actionable goal you can actually put into practice. “Meal plan every Sunday” is an actionable goal that will make eating healthier a heck of a lot easier. Instead of thinking about the endpoint of your goals, think about the steps it will take to get there, and make the steps your goals. It really makes your goals reachable when you shift your thinking this way.
Sit down and craft a game plan. Remember when we read “The Life Giving Home?” Now is the time to pull out your book and read the month of January! I love that the authors broke down their book into months of the year, and I’m so excited because we are now at the beginning of the year, so we can take the Clarksons’ advice and game plan for 2023. I’m not even going to offer a ton of my own advice here - just read the book and follow their guide on how to approach making a game plan for next year.
Be grateful for what you have and shift your perspective for 2023. Each year, I think it’s so important to look back and think of all the things we are grateful for. All the beauty God has put into the world, all the ways He sustains us, all the people who have been good and kind and given their time and energy to help us thrive. Even in hard years, it’s invaluable to pick out the good things that have happened to us and view things in a positive light. Now, take that perspective into 2023. As you navigate the world, be grateful in the moment, not just looking back. One year in high school, every day for two weeks I wrote in my notebook, “I am grateful, I am grateful, I am grateful.” That little practice truly changed my life. I feel that I am so much more readily grateful for the people around me, for the things I am lucky enough to own, and for the life God has given me. Perhaps try that exercise yourself, and see how it colors your worldview.
I hope that this list helps you approach the coming year in an intentional way. Which of these tips do you think you’ll put into practice? Are you excited for the coming year? Let me know your thoughts below!
Making goals into actionable steps is a great thing to remember. I definitely need to make some changes this year. It will be scary, but I cannot keep doing, or more like not doing , what I have been.
Do we watch the movie together or watch on our own time and then discuss?