Rise & Shine! It's Monday, Dec 29. Christmas is Behind Us. A Cold Front Moves In. 2026 Events are Hopping!

Written on 12/29/2025

Sarah Hampton

"The best way to predict the future is to create it." – Abraham Lincoln.

Rise & Shine! It's Monday, Dec 29. Christmas is Behind Us. A Cold Front Moves In. 2026 Events are Hopping!

What day is it? Monday… probably. Christmas has come and gone, the decorations are coming down, and we’re all slowly wandering back into normal life. Morning alarms are going off again. Calendars are filling back up. Pants with buttons are making a return.

But hang on. The New Year is just a few days away!

For a lot of us, this in-between week is a strange one. It’s quiet. There’s no big news. Just a little extra space to breathe and think. A new year has a funny way of doing that. It gets us reflecting on what worked, what didn’t, the wins we’re proud of, and the lessons we didn’t ask for but got anyway.

Some folks will ring in the new year with friends and noise. Others will watch the ball drop on TV. And if we’re being honest, most of us will be sound asleep before midnight, perfectly happy about it.

So let’s use this slow week for something good. Something simple. Let’s get inspired. Big changes don’t have to start big. Sometimes it’s just a small shift, a better habit, or a fresh perspective.

Here’s your gentle challenge. What’s one small thing you can do to make 2026 a little better? For yourself. For someone else. For our community. Take one step. Then smile. You’ve already started.

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We were spoiled with a spring like holiday, but winter is reminding us it’s still very much here. Colder air is moving in this week, bringing us back to winter weather and a full reminder that the season has only begun.