By Amy Nielsen

This last week of the year is always fraught with peril for me. I spend half the time in high elation with the blush of Yuletide faeries and hearty fare still ringing through my head and belly, and the other half in defeated panic about all the things I said I would accomplish and find instead lying in varying piles around my house resembling so many miniature towers of Pisa gathering dust in corners and on steps.

By Salute to Spouses Staff

Halloween is becoming one of the top celebrated holidays in the workplace. A recent survey by National Today shows that 72 percent of U.S. employers encourage their employees to wear a costume to work for the holiday.

The day of candy and fun offers many workplaces a chance to build comradery and give employees a chance to get to know each other better.

It also could offer an opportunity for well-intentioned employees to offend their co-workers and their supervisors.

Being a military spouse makes you jaded.

You always assume your husband will come home too late for dinner. 

He will likely be deployed for your birthday.  Again.

He won’t get a promotion even when he deserves it.  He won’t get leave, even when he deserves it.  He won’t get to send e-mails or phone calls during deployments, even when he deserves it.

Granted, the Navy has been good to us.  I can’t complain.

Want to lose weight? Learn a new language? Keep a cleaner house? Write a novel?

What is your New Year's Resolution?

The easy part is deciding. The hard part is following through.

And let's be honest, we're not experts at keeping resolutions either. Last year our staff made lots of resolutions. The easiest, or so we thought: one writer vowed to move the Elf on the Shelf every night during December. The result?

Elf:2  Staff writer: 0

No goal, no matter how small, is as easy as we think.