Our news & politics thoughts, like yours, are a little overwhelming this week. It didn’t feel right to us to add an “outside of politics” segment to Friday’s episode. We’re also committed to bringing “outside of politics” energy to you. We’ve said what we can in our episodes for now. Today, in this newsletter, we’re going light. We need it, and we suspect you might, too. Thank you for being here with us through all the beautiful and terrible that life brings.
Show of hands (ok…show of clicks, but know that I imagine all of us hanging out in my living room discussing): how do you tend to approach the new year?
I’ve tried a number of approaches, including Susannah Conway’s excellent Unravel Your Year and the YearCompass. I like all of the things. I like resolutions. I like choosing a word. I like setting concrete goals. This year, I also feel inspired by an approach that’s a little looser, a little freer, a little more fun: the Bingo card.
I made a “date night” bingo card for Chad as a Christmas gift, and I love that I’ve already thought through fun, easy ways for us to spend time together. I also love that he asked: “what do I get when I win?” I told him I’d have to think about bingo prizes. He said, “nah, I’m going for a cover-all obviously.”
This weekend, I’m going to hole up with a couple of friends, my pajamas, a basket of craft supplies, and some great food to make my Bingo card. I’ll report back. - Beth
I have several New Year practices. (Please contain your surprise.) One I had let fall by the wayside is the set of goals we made as a family. For several years, we set hard-and-fast goals for travel and hospitality that I would turn into a poster and hang in our kitchen.
I’m not sure when we stopped or why, but when I hung up a poster of the seven virtues (a theme I’d like to spend time with this year as a family), Griffin requested we do the poster again because it seemed “more fun” than the virtues poster. And, you know what? Fair.
So, we sat down as a family and worked on our goals around reading, family viewing, travel, and experiences. It was fun to do this after thinking them all up myself when they were little. Now that the boys are older, they have so many fun ideas and are so much more contributive. Once we had our goal, I knew I was going to go to Gemini’s Nano Banana tool because, as fun as it was lining up all those dice myself one by one, I’ve found that using A.I. has positively revolutionized creating images like this.
This was the exact prompt I entered: I want an infograph for a poster 2700 x 3600pixels. It’s going to be a fun graphic of The Holland Family Goals for 2026. The first section will be our family reading goals which are 26 family reading evenings then our individual goals Mom 70 books, Dad 25, Griffin 30, Amos 25, Felix 50. Then we have viewing goals. We want to finish Freaks and Geeks, Long Story Short, and watch Mad Men. We want to have 5 family movie nights. We want to go on three camping trips, do 3 scratch off activities, and visit 1 far away theme park. We want to make raclette sandwiches, sushi and do 4 family pizza nights. We also want to have the goal of being on time for church. Please make this softer tones - nothing too bright but with plenty of visual interest and maybe ways to mark off as we complete our goals.
That’s it. Seconds later, I had my image and was uploading it for printing at my local Office Depot! It’s already on the wall, and we have our first movie-and-pizza night planned for Saturday! -Sarah
How are you thinking about the new year? Join us in the comments.
This week, we dove straight into the headlines with the US Government’s Arrest of Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro and the Shooting of Nicole Good in Minnesota in today’s new episode.
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What We’re Reading (or into) this Week
Sarah: The Stand by Stephen King
Beth: The Friend-Group Fallacy: Many people yearn for a crew, but having one is not actually the norm (The Atlantic)
Alise: The Stand by Stephen King
Maggie: James Monroe: A Life by Tim McGrath
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I like that be on time for church is a Outdoor activity
I love the bingo idea and the family goals poster. Sarah - what's a scratch-off activity?