New Year's Resolutions

Why, may I ask, do we arbitrarily select January 1st as the date for making changes in our lives? Why not the first day of spring (spring cleaning in a metaphysical sense!) or on Thanksgiving when we're counting blessings (and we could then come up with ways to make our lives even better...), but instead we just go with the first day of the next year. Personally, I think that the way we mark time seems QUITE arbitrary, especially what with scientists now adding "leap seconds"... but that's beside the point.
I'm calling this a New Year's Resolution because it "resolves" an issue I encountered while sending Christmas cards, so this is the first chance I'm getting to DO something about it. And, if I write here, "Hey WORLD, I'm going to do this!!!!" chances are better that I actually WILL.
I'm compiling a list of older relatives, friends, etc, who do not have e-mail. Once a month, I will write each one a letter, and send it by US Post. I would resolve to call, but a phone call that lasts any length of time is punctuated by an ongoing monologue of "NO! Put that down. No, no throwing. No, I can't read that right now. Leave the cat alone..." etc. You get the idea. And apart from my parents, I don't actually LIKE talking on the phone. That's why e-mail is a lifesaver for me! I can type in between playing games, while reading a book (that's a trick you should try sometime, it helps when the book's memorized), or with Veggie Tales cranked up loud. I can start an e-mail when I have a thought RIGHT NOW, then save a draft and come back to it when Kittyboy's asleep or something. A long e-mail (or blog post!) can be written over the course of a day, in little minutes here and there. Phones don't work that way!
So, I'm going to write loooong, chatty letters, by hand, on notebook paper if nothing else, and they're actually going to get mailed, too. I've always been bad at keeping in touch with people. That really is a fault of mine. So that's my project! Nine is my favorite number, so the 9th of every month is now dubbed Letter-Writing Day.
And thank-yous! Thank-yous are getting sent this year. Cross my heart. Really. They are.