The first month of the year… resolutions are fresh in our minds, those extra holiday pounds are swimming around our belts, the promise of a new start looms ahead. Yes, it’s January! The month of beginnings! The month of fresh starts! The month for…well, you guessed it, it’s the month for the weird and wonderful reasons we humans have come up with to justify a celebration.
So, put your feet up, have a dried plum while reading a book about becoming more creative in collecting wealth, drink a cup of hot tea, and donate some blood…You’ll be a better person for it!
Please note: the comments in italics are mine and mine alone and do not reflect the opinions, ideas, or musings of any other person, group, or entity. 
)
January is
Flower: Carnation or Snowdrop
Birthstone: Garnet
New Moon: January 8th at 6:37am
Full Moon January 22nd at 8:35am
Monthly observances…
Book Blitz Month
Birth Defects Month
California Dried Plum Digestive Month do plums have digestive issues?
Coffee Gourmet International Month
Family Fit Lifestyle Month
Financial Wellness Month RUN to the bank!
International Change Your Stars Month
International Creativity Month watch a Martha Stewart show!
International New Year’s Resolutions Month for Businesses
International Quality of Life Month
International Wayfinding Month
International Wealth Mentality Month run faster to the bank!
National Be On-Purpose Month
National Clean Up Your Computer Month how DOES it get so dirty?
National Get Organized Month
National Glaucoma Awareness Month
National Hot Tea Month
National Lose Weight, Feel Great Month if only it were this easy…
National Mail Order Gardening Month
National Mentoring Month mentor a child – it doesn’t hurt!
National Personal Self-Defense Month
National Radon Action Month
National Skating Month skate away from Radon
National Volunteer Blood Donor Month
Oatmeal Month
Resolve to Eat Breakfast Month have a bowl of oatmeal!
Thyroid Awareness Month we need to be aware of our thyroids?
Weekly celebrations….
1/1-7 Diet Resolution Week that’s about as long as it’ll last
National Lose Weight/Feel Great Week
New Year’s Resolutions Week
Silent Record Week better than broken record week
Women’s Self Empowerment Week
1/2-5 Someday We’ll Laugh About this Week I’m laughing now, thanks
1/7-11 National Thank-Your-Customers Week
1/9-12 National No Tillage Week
1/9-13 National Graves’ Disease Awareness Week
1/11-17 Cuckoo Dancing Week buy one of those little drinking birds!
1/13-19 International Printing Week
1/17-27 Sundance Film Festival
1/20-26 Healthy Weight Week
National Handwriting Analysis Week
National Take Back your Time Week where should we take it?
1/21-25 National Medical Group Practice Week
No Name Calling Week that’s stupid!
1/24-30 World Leprosy Week
1/26-2/2 National Cowboy Poetry Gathering Week there once was a horse from Nantucket…
1/29-2/2 Catholic Schools Week
1/31-2/4 Groundhog Days
Special January Days
1/1 New Years Day
New Year’s Dishonor List Day
Z Day as in catch some
Sudan Independence Day
1/2 Happy Mew Year for Cats Day leave it to cats to do it one day late
55-MPH Speed Limit Day only if you’re not on I-285!
Earth at Perihelion
Haiti: Ancestor’s Day
National Geographic Bee where are the Isles of Langerhorn?
Japan: Kakizome
1/3 Memento Mori “Remember You Die” Day we need to remember this?
National Chocolate Covered Cherry Day
Tolkien Day eat a chocolate covered cherry while reading The Hobbit!
Congress Assembles
National Write to Congress Day
1/4 Dimpled Chad Day chads are so much cuter with dimples!
Trivia Day
World Braille Day
1/5 Bird Day the creatures, not the hand gestures
National Second Hand Wardrobe Day wear some hand-me-downs!
Epiphany or Twelfth Night
1/7 Thank God It’s Monday Day whoever made this one isn’t a teacher!
Japan: Nanakusa and Usokae
1/8 National English Toffee Day
National Joy Germ Day why should germs be joyous?
Show and Tell Day at Work
Greece: Midwife’s or Women’s Day
St. Gudala’s Feast Day
1/9 Panama: Martyr’s Day
Philippines: Feast of the Black Nazarene
1/10 Islamic New Year Day
National Cut Your Energy Costs Day stay home!
1/11 International Thank You Days (through 1/18)
Nepal: National Unity Day
1/12 Penguin Awareness Day watch the movie!
1/14 National Clean Off Your Desk Day
Organize Your Home Day
Ratification Day
Japan: Coming of Age Day
Uzbekistan: Army Day
1/15 Champion of the Month Day who will it be this year??
Humanitarian Day
1/16 Appreciate a Dragon Day Grendel rocks!
Nothing Day beware the nothing!
Religious Freedom Day
Japan: Haru-No-Yabuiri
Malawi: John Chilembwe Day
1/17 Customer Service Day I KNEW it was down to just one day!
Judgment Day
Kid Inventors’ Day invent some way to improve customer service!
St. Anthony’s Day
Get to Know Your Customers Day
1/18 Pooh (Winnie The) Day
1/19-20 Eagle Days I want to fly like an eagle…
1/20 National Disc Jockey Day
Inauguration Day
World Religion Day let’s pray for wise leadership!
1/21 Martin Luther King Day one day isn’t enough…
National Hugging Day
Squirrel Appreciation Day let them eat out of the bird feeder…
1/22 Answer Your Cats Questions Day mine won’t talk to me.
Celebration of Life Day
International Day of Radiant Peace
National Speak Up and Succeed Day speak up for peace!
Rid the World of Fad Diets and Gimmicks Day remember the hot dog diet?
Tub’Shvat
St. Vincent’s Feast Day
1/23 National Handwriting Day
National Pie Day eat a Moonpie!
Snowplow Mailbox Hockey Day fun!!
Bulgaria: Babin Den
1/24 Belly Laugh Day find something funny and share it!
Women’s Healthy Weight Day that’s not funny…
Bolivia: Alacitis Fair
Togo: Economic Liberation Day
1/24-26 Women in Blue Jeans Days
1/25 A Room of One’s Own Day
Fun At Work Day shouldn’t this go with Belly Laugh Day?
1/26 National Peanut Brittle Day
National Seed Swap Day
Toad Hollow Day of Encouragement they need this in Toad Hollow…
1/27 Holocaust Memorial Day never forget…never forget
Thomas Crapper Day
1/28 Better Business Communication Day
Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day do a bubble wrap dance!
National Compliment Day y’all are great!
Respectful Communication teach it to a young person!
1/29 Free Thinkers Day I don’t believe you should have to pay to think!
World Leprosy Day
1/30 Inane Answering Message Day
National Write to Congress Day or leave an inane answering machine message!
1/31 Inspire Your Heart with Art Day make an early Valentine!
Nauru: National Holiday
Selected author birthdays…
Jan. 1 J. D. Salinger, 1919; Jean Ure, 1943
Jan. 2 Isaac Asimov, 1920; Alma Flor Ada, 1938
Jan. 3 J.R.R. Tolkien, 1892; Carolyn Haywood, 1898
Jan. 4 Jacob Grimm, 1785; Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, 1933
Jan. 5 Lynne Cherry, 1952
Jan. 6 Carl Sandburg, 1878; Vera Cleaver, 1919
Jan. 7 Zora Neal Hurston, 1891; Minfong Ho, 1951
Jan. 8 Lee Ames, 1921; Stephen Manes, 1949
Jan. 9 Walter Brooks, 1886; Clyde Robert Bulla, 1914
Jan. 10 Sook Nyul Choi, 19?; Christopher G. Knight, 1943
Jan. 11 Robert C. O’Brien, 1918; Alice Mead, 1952
Jan. 12 Charles Perrault, 1628; Jack London, 1876
Jan. 13 David Wiseman, 1916; Michael Bond, 1926
Jan. 14 Hugh Lofting, 1886
Jan. 15 Robert Silverberg, 1935; Bijou LeTord, 1945
Jan. 16 Robert Lipsyte, 1938
Jan. 17 Robert Cormier, 1925; Shari Lewis, 1934
Jan. 18 A.A. Milne, 1882; Raymond Briggs, 1934
Jan. 19 Nina Bawden, 1925; Pat Mora, 1942
Jan. 20 Helen Hoover, 1910; Tedd Arnold, 1949
Jan. 21 Huck Scarry, 1953
Jan. 22 Brian Wildsmith, 1930; Rafe Martin, 1946
Jan. 23 Katherine Holabird, 1948
Jan. 24 John Beatty, 1922
Jan. 25 James Flora, 1914; Debbi Chocolate, 1951
Jan. 26 Mary Mapes Dodge, 1831; Maria von Trapp, 1905
Jan. 27 Lewis Carroll, 1832; Julius Lester, 1939
Jan. 28 Vera B. Williams, 1927
Jan. 29 Bill Peet, 1915; Christopher Collier, 1930; Rosemary Wells, 1943
Jan. 30 Lloyd Alexander, 1924; Tony Johnston, 1942; Michael Dorris, 1945
Jan. 31 Gerald McDermott, 1941; Denise Fleming, 1950
–
Susan Grigsby, Teacher-Librarian
Elkins Pointe Middle School
Alpharetta, Georgia
