Happy New Year! Taking a break around the holidays always leaves me refreshed for the new year, but the start of each new year always seems like the abrupt stop of the at Six Flags St. Louis (those of you who have ridden it know what I’m talking about, right? It’s particularly jolting if you ride in the last car). There are months of anticipation leading up to Christmas then several parties and gatherings, all involving delicious food, that must be crammed in (usually within a week), then the big New Year’s Eve bash (this year, I missed that one and was asleep by 9:30! YIKES!), then nothing. Yes, there’s the anticipation of seeing what the new year holds, but there are no more late nights spent decorating and wrapping and cooking, no more shopping trips for “just one more” gift, no more Amazon shopping and figuring out if deliveries will make it in time, no more watching a one year old unwrap presents with amazing ability and determination, and no more excuse for that extra cookie or piece of fudge or the remainder of my mother-in-law’s most awesome chocolate pudding.

There is freshness in the air each January 1, or 2 as this case may be, and I don’t think it has anything to do with the single digit temperatures we’re experiencing this morning. There’s just something about “January” that seems fresh.

I’m wondering if our clients sometimes feel like this. They anticipate their new exhibits, often for years, then they have the hustle and bustle of working through the design and critiquing the fabrication then the excitement of seeing it all come together and many times the busy preparations for a grand opening then…ahhhhh!…they have a time to sit back, relax, and enjoy the results of the work they put in over the last 12+ months. It’s a time of newness and anticipation of seeing how the visitors react. It’s their “January.”

What does January mean to you?