In honor of the New Year, my 2011 Marriage Resolutions:*

1. Write more love notes. Even if they’re scribbled on Post-Its before I dash out the door in the morning.
2. Notice the little things he does, the kind of stuff that often gets overlooked, things like putting a new bar of soap in the shower, emptying the trash cans when they get full, filling up my gas tank when it gets low, scraping off my windshield in the morning.
3. Say thank you for these things. Every one. (Okay, almost every one.)**
4. Make dinner for him every once in a while. (Even though we’ve agreed that The Kitchen is J.’s domain and The Laundry Room is mine, it’s always nice to have dinner prepared for you, right?)***
5. Let him pick the movie.
6. Try — really try — to enjoy watching sports, or to at least understand them a bit better.****
7. Eat dinner together at least once a week at the kitchen table, not slouched on the couch in front of the TV. A proper dinner with placemats and intimate conversation and maybe even a glass or two of wine.
8. Kiss him more. Even when I have lipstick on.
9. Lose 15 pounds. (Not exactly a marriage-related thing, but weight loss is a Resolution List requisite, so there it is.)*****
10. Learn to stick to the point when arguing. (See: bucket throwing.)
11. Enjoy our life, the whole fun, messy, intense, hilarious, amazing lot of it. Because at the end of the day, at the end of each year, there’s no one else with whom I’d rather clink champagne flutes and kiss when the ball drops.

*This blog idea comes courtesy of J., who made me promise to give him credit for it. (Thanks, babe.)

**Ha! Already done! See above.

***Resolution 4a: Learn how to work the oven.

****This has been on my list for the past 16 years, ever since it was cool to wear Starter jackets.

***** This has also been on my list for the past 16 years.

Tell us: What relationship resolutions do you have for 2011? Stop hogging the covers? Start embracing his love of video games? Go out on spontaneous dates more often?