Happy New Year!

2012 passed in a blur of work, travel, conferences, pregnancy, and babies. Was it a crazy year? Yes indeed! And I wasn’t able to travel for several months. So I was about 50-50 with my 2012 travel resolutions:

Get to Chicago and South Texas. Visiting family is always a priority! I was able to visit Chicago three times last year! That’s a lot of sister time. The Home Warrior and I traveled to South Texas to visit my grandmother twice, and took the Mini Warrior once. As a bonus, we also went to North Texas to visit the Home Warrior’s family twice. I’m sure the Tours of Texas will continue this year!

Take at least one fun vacation. With all the conferences and work trips this year, it’s a wonder the Home Warrior and I had a chance to see each other, much less go on a fun trip. But we managed it! Some good friends of ours got married in Playa del Carmen this year, and we managed to get there for the festivities (and a little fun time before). At seven months pregnant there were definitely challenges, but it was a great trip nonetheless.

Make Executive Platinum. Well, not being able to fly for five months made this one nearly impossible. Maybe next year!

Get the Companion Pass. While I wasn’t able to make this happen in 2012, I am pretty certain that it will happen early in 2012. I don’t want to jinx myself though, so I’m going to hold off on talking about it too much for now.

Looking forward: Travel resolutions for 2013.

1. Visit family. Same as previous years, I want to go see our family all over Texas and in Chicago, plus we have family in New York now.
2. Companion Pass. Get it and USE it. This is the year!!!
3. Get Gold status with Hilton. I’ve been Silver for years without being able to cross that threshold. I am currently doing the Gold Challenge, so should have it soon!
4. Master travel with baby. Or at least learn to travel with baby without losing my mind.
5. Visit Wine Country. For a blissful year and a half, I was able to get to Napa every couple of months. The last time was three and a half years ago and I want to go back!!!
6. Visit one new place in the US. Hopefully the Companion Pass will help us out here! If not, well, we’ll make it happen another way.

My two main resolutions aside from the travel ones are to start getting ready to leave ten minutes before I think I need to (trying to deal with being chronically late to stuff) and do another triathlon.

(Pictured: Photo booth props from Etsy shop The Manic Moose.)

Readers, what are your resolutions this year? How did you do on last year’s?

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That time of year again! Time to reflect back on how 2011 went, and figure out what (if anything) you want to change for 2012. Looking at my travel resolutions for 2011, I did pretty well.

Take a trip with my paternal grandmother. We did manage to take Grandma to the beach! We had fun, although the timing didn’t end up being awesome what with the red tide and all.

Visit my maternal grandmother in South Texas twice. We made it to South Texas only once, but are actually headed back down there this weekend. So still going every six months or so. Yay driving!

Go to Chicago three times to see my sisters. Got to Chicago twice this year, which isn’t bad. Plus my sisters came to Texas a bunch, so I still saw them often. (Although in 2012 I will be up there even more, since both of my sisters are having babies!)

Visit somewhere new. For vacation, the Home Warrior and I went to Puerto Rico this year. It was amazing and wonderful. Everyone should go there!

Looking forward, I have some of the same types of resolutions. I definitely want to continue to spend time with family, get in a fun trip or two, and visit somewhere new. But I also have some pretty specific resolutions (goals?) related to status. So, here goes.

1. Get to Chicago and South Texas. Like 2010 and 2011, I want to make sure I get to see my family a lot.
2. Take at least one fun vacation. There is a ton of stuff going on this year, and the Home Warrior and I definitely need to make time for relaxing.
3. Make Executive Platinum. Honestly, it really irritates me that I went to Manila twice last year, traveled almost every week, and did not hit Ex Plat. This year I will keep the goal in mind when planning travel to try to finally cross that threshold.
4. Get the Southwest Companion Pass. It seems like the coolest thing, so if there is any way to get it I will.

My main resolution aside from these travel ones is to not commit to anything new this year. I’ve got a lot on my plate, and I want to make sure I can do all of those things well.

So Readers, what are your resolutions? Do you have specific travel ones or just general ones?

Every year, I, like many others, spend some time doing some evaluation. Did I complete my goals for the last year? Did I get the major things done? How about resolutions? Did I do those? What do I want to accomplish this year? What are my five- and ten-year-goals? What did I not complete last year that needs to be carried over?

(Earlier this year I discovered Chris Guillabeau and his blog, The Art of Non-conformity. I love the way he writes, and the way he makes you think about what you are doing with your life. He has a great Annual Review process, if you need some assistance.)

When I am planning for the coming year, I break my resolutions into many sections, including work, home, blog, and of course, travel. My travel resolutions for 2010 were fairly specific. How did I do? Let’s look and see.

Travel to Chicago to see my sisters twice. Wow. I actually went to Chicago four times last year! It was great to see them as often as I did.

Travel to South Texas to see my grandmother twice. I actually went to South Texas to see my grandmother four times as well! That is lots o’ driving, but well worth it.

Go to Europe (hopefully Norway) with Home Warrior, and learn some Norwegian. When it came time to plan our vacation, we decided to go lay on a beach in Cozumel. Maybe we can go to Norway in 2011…..

Go to one new place in the US with Home Warrior. Although I managed to make it to a few new places due to work, the Home Warrior and I never got anywhere new this year. We had a great time on the trips we took to Vegas and Cozumel, but didn’t go anywhere new in the US.

Looks like I spent a lot of time with my family this year! Even though I didn’t make it to Europe or to somewhere new in the US, a year spent with family is a year well spent in my opinion.

What would I like to do in 2011? There are so many things! What do I think I can reasonably do? A slightly different story.

My Travel Resolutions for 2011:

1. Take a trip with my paternal grandmother. Even if it’s just a short one, I would like to go to one place with her this year. She is getting up there  in years, and I know she would love to take a trip somewhere.
2. Visit my maternal grandmother in South Texas twice. It was wonderful to be able to spend so much time with my Memaw last year, and I hope to continue that this year.
3. Go to Chicago three times to see my sisters. Maybe I can even get the Home Warrior up there with me!
4. Visit somewhere new. Whether it is in the US or somewhere else, I would really like to vacation somewhere I’ve never been before. New places for work do not count unless I can get a few days for fun afterward.

I guess it looks pretty similar to last year, with a few modifications. I hope to spend lots of time with family and friends, and get to explore somewhere new. I hope that your new year is also filled with love, adventure, and lots of fun.

I heard a story on the radio where the man said, “I don’t do New Year’s resolutions because I think it’s important to be happy with yourself, and what’s the point of saying you’ll do something or other and a few months later falling into your old habits? It’s demoralizing.”

I can see his point….to a point. It is important to like yourself, and be happy with who you are.  But it is also important (in my opinion) to try to keep growing and learning and trying new things.  My typical list of resolutions is a mix of things I want to learn or experience and new habits I want to form.

No surprise, this year several of my resolutions are travel related. Going to see family, experiencing new places, and learning new cultures and languages. Should make for a busy year!

My travel resolutions are:

1)      Travel to Chicago to see my sisters twice

2)      Travel to South Texas to see my grandmother twice

3)      Go to Europe (hopefully Norway) with Home Warrior, and learn some Norwegian

4)      Go to one new place in the US with Home Warrior

Happy New Year!! I hope this year is a great year for you, filled with fun travel, lots of learning, and new experiences.