Keegan just logged on to the website that’s helping him keep track of quitting smokeless tobacco with nearly 25 days under his belt and he laughed out loud today at how many “Day 1″ people logged on on this New Year’s Day. Tis the season to be making resolutions and planning a better behaved, more organized year! In keeping with that tradition, we’re all sitting around the Martin family home, digesting the wine, chips and dip, turkey and chocolate consumed the night before, watching a marathon of The Biggest Loser repeats on Bravo.

My standby resolutions are to eat better, exercise more, quit biting my nails and become a better saver. So far, I’ve already come up with a good excuse not to go running today, ate a veggie burger with cheese and fries and caught about $500 of unauthorized charges on my credit card when I went online to do some banking. Yes, my belated Christmas present was having somebody swipe my number at a gas station in South Carolina the day after Christmas. As much as it sucks, it’s nice to know it wasn’t as expensive of a month as I had assumed it had been when I initially saw my balance. Let’s hope those crooks resolved to be better people in 2009.

Oh yeah, and I haven’t bit my nails. Yet.

In all seriousness, I do love the prospect of starting fresh. Looking back at the year past, it’s encouraging to see the progress made over a year’s worth of working towards a goal. Frustrations over work, finances and any other nagging issues from the past twelve months are minimized at the realization that despite the occasional lows, the highs have been more consistent and things are still better off than last January. There’s a lot for which to give thanks.

This year, my work schedule has expand to the point where it’s time to start drawing some boundaries again to find more time to do what keeps me sane—running. Over three years ago, I started training for my first marathon and ran the L.A. event two years in a row. After two years of consistent training, participating in another marathon isn’t something that interests me, but I definitely miss the training community and will be marking my calendar with a few half marathons to get myself back on track in 2009.

The new year holds such opportunity for self-betterment and adventures. Why do I sound so optimistic and disgustingly cheerful? It’s because I’m still riding on the high of meeting my nephew, born New Year’s Eve day. Holding 8 lb. 3 oz Wyatt Lowell Smith just hours after he was pushed into the world, I watched his tiny, wrinkled arms and hands reach out, making some of his first movements outside the comforting home my sister’s uterus had been for a little over nine months.

Few things represent the possibility of discovery more than a New Year’s Eve baby and that feeling of rebirth was awakened inside me as I leaned over to let his 20 month old sister Isabella give him the first of many kisses she would bestow upon him during their lives as siblings.

Even though I’m just six days away from entering the last year of my twenties, 2009 is still as untarnished and full of prospects for taking first steps as it is for little Wyatt.

With that in mind, I’m raising my bottle of water up high and toasting to a year filled with good health, better writing, friends and family!

And yes, and flossing on a regular basis.