January celebrations, including a CELEBRATE playlist
“You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.”
~ Mae West
I chose CELEBRATE as my 2026 Word of the Year (WOTY). One way I’m putting that word into practice is to take note of the many things I have to celebrate…large and small…during the month and share the highlights with you on the final Tuesday of each month.
January celebrations
Making my Camino dream come true
This was a big one, since I’ve been dreaming of a Camino pilgrimage for almost a decade. I won’t carry on too much about it here, since I did a full blog post on my Camino plans last week. But I will say I’ve started collecting supplies for the journey, which makes it feel all the more real.
Beholding Mother Nature’s beauties
Having spent most of my life in a place where winters usually mean cold, snow, and dirty-air inversions, I am still in awe of Southern Utah’s winter of brisk air, dry trails, and blue skies. Let me pause here to acknowledge that the Wasatch Front winters can be beautiful too. Fresh snow is something to behold. Yet at this stage in life, I’m loving my desert winters.
Enjoying a heavenly massage
I don’t know what else to say about this, except that I deeply appreciated Gabriele at Melted Massage.
Celebrating 27 years of marriage
We’re still going strong after 27 years. Here we are then, on our wedding day in Mesquite, Nevada…
…and now, on a recent outing in St. George, Utah.
We celebrated our anniversary with dinner at Cliffside Restaurant. I couldn’t resist sharing photos of my dinner and the views from our table.
My CELEBRATE playlist
Each year, I create a playlist to go along with my WOTY. Here’s what I have so far for 2026. I’m open to suggestions for songs that either contain the word “celebrate,” address things worthy of celebration, or just have a celebratory sound to them.
- I Just Want to Celebrate, Rare Earth
- You Always Make Me Smile, Kyle Andrews
- Celebration, Kool & The Gang
- Walking on Sunshine, Katrina & The Waves
- Good To Be Alive (Hallelujah), Andy Grammer
- That’s the Way (I Like It), KC & The Sunshine Band
- Can’t Hold Us, Macklemore, Ryan Lewis
- Good Feeling, Flo Rida
- I Can See Clearly Now, Johnny Nash
- Best Day of My Life, American Authors
- Dynamite, BTS
- Beautiful, Carole King
- What It Sounds Like, KPop Demon Hunters Cast
- Glorious, Macklemore, Skylar Grey
- Girls Just Want to Have Fun, Cyndi Lauper
- Morning Has Broken, Yusuf/Cat Stevens
- Good Riddance (Time of Your Life), Green Day
Your turn
- What is something you celebrated in January?
- Do you have any song suggestions for my CELEBRATE playlist?
- What else is on your mind? Anything at all; I just love to hear from you.
Hi Christie – Happy Anniversary! And on a different topic – my husband is now a toe sock convert for long hikes – he had a lot of problems with blistering and says toe socks have made a big difference. Lovely to read all your celebrating updates. Mine for January was having the grandgirls for a few days – always a time of simple joys and sharing the love.
Thank you Leanne! Seems the second time is the charm for my husband and I. (We were both married and divorced previously.) 😉 So far, I love my toe socks. This is my first time trying them, so I’ll take them on a few longer walks before deciding if that’s the way to go, but I feeling good about them right now. I’m happy for you spending that lovely time with your grandgirls. There’s no truer love.
I loved seeing your wedding picture! I remember that day. ♥️ I like the idea of a playlist to go with your woty. I’ll have to work on that. 😊 Do you use Spotify?
Such great memories, huh, Cindy? I remember so much laughter on that trip. I do use Spotify, and I love it!
Ok I don’t even know where to start. The pictures of you and Papa then and now made me feel so much gratitude for you both and all the years of love and support you have provided. The pasta pictures look like the stuff dreams are made of! And I looooooove that you mentioned BTS!!
Somethings I celebrated in January are the one year anniversary of my last shift of a job that killed my soul, returning to dance classes, and winning the Ticketmaster war to score BTS tickets!
Some of my favorite celebration songs:
Can We Just Leave the Monster Alive?- TXT
Victory Lap- Macklemore and Ryan Lewis
It’s a Great Day to be Alive- Travis Tritt
Up on Game- RealXMan
Three Little Birds- Bob Marley and the Wailers
Dreamers – Jung Kook
Got Each Other- The Interrupters
A New Day Has Come- Celine Dion
Born This Way- Lady Gaga
Super Tuna- Jin
💜💜💜
Ah, Ashley, we both love you so much…and the pasta was heavenly. You’v had so much to celebrate in January. Here’s to a fabulous February! Thanks for all the great suggestions for my CELEBRATE playlist. I’ll be checking them out, and I’ll let you know which ones make the cut. 😂
Happy Anniversary. Love the playlist, dinner out, and the massage. I’m excited for your Camino. The toe socks look like a smart purchase. Do you get to your desert home for long stays, or just weekends? The scenery there is beautiful. We celebrated Malcolm’s birthday this month. The kids visited, and we got together with friends a couple of times. The weather has been wonderful in South Florida, so there’s that to celebrate. January has been uplifting in many ways. We are off to a good start. Glad to see you are also. Take care.
Thanks, Suzanne. We are now spending most of our time in the desert and loving it! Happy birthday to Malcolm. I’m glad to hear that your January has been uplifting…hopefully setting the stage for 2026.
Typically we celebrate our son’s birthday in January but he went on a long weekend trip with his friends this year so we celebrated early while he was home for Christmas break. Otherwise we don’t celebrate much during the month. We did have a nice date night out last weekend but that’s about it. Typically January is too cold and snowy for me to want to do much of anything.
Hello Joanne. I get that January came be a month for nesting and resting. I hope you are enjoying it.
Great list of things to celebrate! I’ll be creating my end of month “I did it” list soon. A bit of a celebration, a bit of check-off update versus my seasonal plan, a bit to make me feel like I am moving forward and living life. One thing I can say for January, the house build has started. Something to definitely celebrate here!
Thank you, Pat. I look forward to seeing your “I did it” list. In the meantime, congratulations on the start of your house build!
Happy Anniversary! Your meal looks delicious! After winters with little snow, we finally got a bunch, and I’m loving it. What I’m not loving are the below zero nights. It could be a tad warmer. I have never tried toe socks…I have hammer toes so I’m wondering if they would help with that. How about 1999 by Prince? My January best thing would be this coming weekend when we have a murder mystery party for my son’s birthday! Love your uplifting posts, Christie!
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Thank you, Marsha. We had a lovely anniversary celebration. I’m happy that you are enjoying the snow. It certainly can be beautiful. Thanks for the song suggestion. That’s a good one. Have so much fun at your murder mystery party!
This is a great post Christie, with lots to celebrate – happy anniversary to you both! I also make a playlist for my word each year and need some ideas for ‘silly’ songs as they tend to be more for children!!
We also celebrated our wedding anniversary in January 46 years can you believe that? It’s my husband’s birthday today and the last in his 60s, so our daughters reminded him!!
Have a great month ahead.
Thank you, Debbie, and congratulations on your 46th anniversary. That’s impressive. As for a silly playlist, I don’t know a lot of songs with the word “silly” in them, but I can think of a few songs that feel silly. I like You Always Make Me Smile by Kyle Andrews and Coconut by Harry Nilsson.
What a diverse playlist. Music from all the genres!! Hope you will be the anthem that helps you walk your pilgrimage.
Love the socks!! I need some. Had a very cheap pair of toe socks but haven’t come across them in my sock drawer. Need to dig deeper to find them, I guess. But yours look like they would be wonderful for hikes and long walks. Are they wool?
Happy anniversary to you both. Enjoyed seeing the wedding picture and the photo from present day. Congratulations on 27 years!! Your celebratory dinner looks scrumptious.
I do love a variety of music, Leslie. The toe socks I chose are actually thin liners designed to go under another pair of socks. They are a special injinji blend and very comfortable. Thank you for the anniversary wishes!