What are some of those New Year’s traditions that make the holiday so special? Champagne. Noisemakers. Watching the ball drop in Time’s Square. Kissing that special someone at midnight.

Yeah, the New Year is a magical time, when we close the book on the old year and start the new one fresh again. It’s the perfect time to dedicate yourself to doing something different.

Yes, to make resolutions.

New Year’s resolutions are usually a bunch of hooey. Don’t believe me? Here’s an experiment you can conduct. Find a local gym. Could be a commercial establishment, a city-owned facility or the local ‘Y’. Now, note how many people are there on – say – January 10th, working themselves into a lather. Those are the folks who resolved to drop that extra 20 pounds they packed on with the Halloween, Thanksgiving and holiday goodies.

Go back in March. A lot fewer folks feeling the burn, hmmm… Many folks just give up because their goal suddenly seems too far away to achieve.

The people who do stick with their resolutions are the ones who make realistic, achievable goals. Going someplace new. Adding a quick lunchtime walk to the routine. Heck, calling your parents a little more frequently.

As a woodworker, part of my ‘package’ of resolutions always includes a few items around the shop. Last year, I promised to myself that I would try bent laminations, and try I did. In fact, I should be posting something very soon about a project I’ve had in the shop for a while.

“Of course, the toughest part of coming up with new woodworking resolutions is actually coming up with them,” said Tim Walter of Eagle America. “That’s also what makes woodworking such a vibrant and exciting craft… there are just so many different aspects to explore.”

To help get the pump primed, Tim offered the following suggestions:

• Build those kitchen cabinets. With the current economic picture, people are tending to stay put longer in their homes. Why struggle with a terrible kitchen design when, for a small investment in tooling, you can build a set of custom cabinets that will outperform and outlast anything you can buy at a big-box home improvement center. “With a Kreg pocket screw jig, the boxes and face frames are easy, and we have many decorative options of stile and rail bits, panel raisers and door and table edge bits to build a kitchen to suit your taste. If you are building cabinets for an average kitchen and you work at the modest pace of building one cabinet box a week, you can plan on hosting a Fourth of July party at your place and proudly show off your handiwork.”

• Cut your first dovetails. Dovetails are still looked upon as the hallmark of craftsmanship. Learning how to cut the joint should be something you consider trying. “We often look at woodworkers who make flawless hand-cut dovetails with awe, but machine cut joinery is every bit as strong and just as beautiful. We offer both Porter Cable jigs and the Chestmate, so you can take your pick. Oh, and we also sell some very high quality bits for those jigs as well.”

• Cut better mortise and tenon joints. The mortise and tenon joint is one of the most important joints to master. It’s been around since the time of the Egyptians, and can be used for small and delicate projects as well as big, burly ones. “Sure, you can buy a hollow chisel mortiser or lay out money for a set of mortising chisels, but you may not realize that your plunge router can serve as an excellent mortising machine. Carbide up-cut spiral  bits are ideal for this purpose, and router bushings can help make a mortising guide a snap to build.”

• Get your tools razor sharp. Many people just give up on hand tools after a while. No, it’s not their technique, it’s the fact that they are working with dull tools. Dull chisels require more force, can damage your work and are even more likely to hurt you than sharp ones. “We carry an extensive line of sharpening supplies for getting rough bevels ground and honing supplies to put that very fine cutting edge on the tools. The WorkSharp 3000 is a very popular sharpening system and makes honing easy even for a beginner.”

• Build a decorative box. Making small boxes is an excellent way to improve your skills without making a large investment in wood or tools. You can let your imagination run wild or go with timeless details in a more traditional form. And, they are a great way to use up those valuable bits of leftover wood just waiting for the right project. “Whatever designs you can think of, we can certainly help supply the tools. Decorative edge forming and box making bits, clamping and finishing supplies and a large number of books can help turn your vision into reality. We even sell musical movements so you can make your new box sing for a loved one.”

And, these are just some starting points. From there, the sky is truly the limit. How about building an instrument? Building a project to donate to charity? Going to a woodworking school? Heck, even starting your own woodworking blog!

One thing I have noticed as a blogger is that putting articles on Tom’s Workbench requires constant effort. I have to be thinking about six steps ahead in order to keep bringing you quality content. I have written articles in the last minute, and found most of those to be lesser quality ones.

That’s why my resolution is to continue to push myself to try new things and let you look over my shoulder while I do. Will everything I touch turn out OK? Of course not. But, in 2010, I hope to keep all of you as my constant companions on this journey.

Happy New Year, everyone, and I hope it’s a very healthy and happy one for us all.

This is always a strange time of the year for me.

From January through April, our office spends a lot of time getting ready for hurricane season.  From April through September, we do a lot of talks and other public presentations.  From September through early November, we spend a lot of time cataloging our accomplishments and making notes for the next year.

Then, from November through Christmas, my wife and I spend a large amount of time getting ready for the holidays.

Finally, after the Christmas roast is put away, I get about ten days off.

I mark this time off on my calendar very early in the year.  Those May or June nights when I drive  home sometime after 9:30 p.m. after my third hurricane talk of the day, I think about this week.  I long for it.

Now it’s here!

What should I do?

It’s always a tough decision. A whole week of free time.  I turn the work phone off, let any work pile up on the desk back at the office and just be.

Part of me wants to sleep in, play video games and just goof off with the kids.

Another part wants to get active with the family and go places we’ve never been to do things we haven’t done. Why, a visit to the Florida Craftsman Gallery sounds like it would be a fun trip.

There’s also the list of projects that has been sitting around unfinished, needing a solid block of time and effort to reach completion.  For instance, with our counter tops in, now I have to tile the back splash.  Yes, that’s on today’s agenda.

And, then there are the final touches to put on the cradle for donation. And, some finishing touches on a special art project that has been in the shop since July.

There’s football.

Oh, and yes, the shop does need to be cleaned up!

You know, this week is a great one to get most – if not all – of that stuff done…

After my next cup of coffee.

The holiday season is a time of the year when we set our expectations kind of high.  Aren’t we all supposed to have this month filled with family harmony and the holiday spirit?  Aren’t the gifts we buy supposed to be the perfect ones for the recipients?  Aren’t the cookies we bake supposed to come out of the oven looking as if they came right off the front cover of a food magazine?

Well, that’s not always the case. Sometimes reality creeps in and plays the Grinch to your season.  Just a few years ago, our minivan was stolen from in front of the city library on December 21, and we spent the entire week from Christmas through the New Year dealing with towing companies, body shops and the ever-present insurance adjusters. The officer who took our stolen vehicle report even told us, “This never happens in front of this library.  What a bummer for the season!”

This year, I had set my goals very high.  In October, I promised myself that I would slow down and try to enjoy every minute possible with my wife and my boys who seem to be growing and maturing faster than I can keep track of.

That’s when reality reared its ugly head.  What had started as building a few Christmas gifts for a few relatives became a marathon production session to build nine wine racks in time to hit the shipping deadlines.

Then we had to make a decision on our dated kitchen counter tops.  They were quickly becoming an eyesore, with gaps opening between the tile top and the wood edging.  Something had to be done, and the Thanksgiving weekend sales at Home Depot were just too good to pass up. Now, we have a beautiful counter top that just needs a little trim work and a tile back splash to come to completion.

Why tell you my tales of woe?  Well, with time ticking away until Santa makes his visit, I am going to have to admit to myself that I’m not going to get the cradle to donate done in time for Christmas.  When I found myself this Saturday bouncing between the cradle and trimming out the kitchen during a six hour shop session –  and not getting either one of them done as nicely as I needed them to be – my wife came into the shop to have a heart-to-heart.

Without realizing it, I was becoming a holiday grump.  The kids were waiting for me to call it a day in the shop so we could look at the tree and the presents that were piling up underneath.  They had also set up the Monopoly game board for a family showdown.

I had to make an executive decision.  And, that is that I’m going to have to get the kitchen in order for our big Italian fish dinner on Christmas Eve and spend the next few days enjoying the season with my boys.

Since I am taking the week between Christmas and New Years off from work, I will be able to easily finish the cradle during that off time.  And, it’s not as if the need for this cradle at the pregnancy crisis center is going to disappear because Christmas has come and gone.

I just have to remember that I’m not the world’s fastest or best woodworker… and there’s only one of me.  And that one of me still wants to ditch the stress, enjoy my family, marvel at the joy of the season and do my best on the project that I’ll be donating.