I’m not a big fan of Thanksgiving or Christmas.

Those holidays simply serve to remind me I come from a fractured family. None of my immediate family gets together for the holidays — not with me or each other; haven’t for years — so the loving moments most other families share, mine does not. It’s a long, sad story of selfishness and spite among all involved, but it is what it is.

I’ve been fortunate to have made great friends along the way and I spend time with them, but the knowledge that my holiday experience is very different from everyone else’s is there, glaring at me all the while.

I just want to get them over with.

However, the New Year is something different. I embrace it as a time of renewal, like an opportunity to de-clutter, to correct course, refocus on priorities.

Yes, I’m a resolution maker. I put a lot of thought into them — it’s usually just one. If I don’t stick to it, I at least try to come close and in the end am better for it.

I’m not the only resolution maker. In fact, it seems I’m in very good company this year.

According to the Catholic News Service, Pope Francis met with a group of Vatican employees — mostly lay people with families, it said — and asked them to do 10 things, now coined as his New Year’s resolutions. Here is his list:

“Take care of your spiritual life, your relationship with God, because this is the backbone of everything we do and everything we are.”

“Take care of your family life, giving your children and loved ones not just money, but most of all your time, attention and love.”

“Take care of your relationships with others, transforming your faith into life and your words into good works, especially on behalf of the needy.”

Be careful how you speak, purify your tongue of offensive words, vulgarity and worldly decadence.”

“Heal wounds of the heart with the oil of forgiveness, forgiving those who have hurt us and medicating the wounds we have caused others.”

“Look after your work, doing it with enthusiasm, humility, competence, passion and with a spirit that knows how to thank the Lord.”

“Be careful of envy, lust, hatred and negative feelings that devour our interior peace and transform us into destroyed and destructive people.”

“Watch out for anger that can lead to vengeance; for laziness that leads to existential euthanasia; for pointing the finger at others, which leads to pride; and for complaining continually, which leads to desperation.”

“Take care of brothers and sisters who are weaker…the elderly, the sick, the hungry, the homeless and strangers, because we will be judged on this.

“Make sure your Christmas is about Jesus and not about shopping.”

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Jan Griffey is editor of The Vicksburg Post. You may reach her at jan.griffey@vicksburgpost.com.