Like many people, I have conflicting feelings about the month of December. There’s much to enjoy — especially preparing for holiday gatherings and visiting with friends and relatives. But there’s also plenty of stress, with so many end-of-the-year, personal and job-related tasks to complete and deadlines to meet.

But December is also a good time to celebrate the year’s successes. Here at Ohio Magazine, we were honored to accept the Best Monthly Magazine award at the Ohio Society of Professional Journalists’ luncheon in October. Our redesigned website, ohiomagazine.com, received SPJ recognition for Best Design and Navigation, thanks to Art Director Lesley Blake. Look for new and enhanced features on the site, including an easy-to-use Event Finder and a staff blog that offers editors’ observations on their travels and magazine assignments. And please add your comments: We appreciate your feedback, which helps us plan magazine and website features.

We’ve also added more video features to ohiomagazine.com — supplementing the articles you read in these pages every month. For me, a standout this year was the behind-the-scenes video tour of the Ohio Statehouse (ohiomagazine.com/Main/Articles/Statehouse_Tour_4370.aspx), led by Gregg Dodd, Statehouse historian, whose engaging civics lesson can serve as preview to an in-person visit.

Throughout the year, editors and other Ohio Magazine staffers engage in activities that enrich both the publication and the website. Last month, a contingent of staffers attended the Ohio Travel Association annual meeting, scoping out the latest and greatest destinations for Ohio Magazine and our semi-annual travel supplement LongWeekends. One of our OTA attendees was Stacey Higgins, who recently joined Ohio Magazine as Managing Editor, Custom Media, and Editor of LongWeekends.

Senior Editor Linda Feagler has traveled extensively between the 3C cities this year as she covered the state’s arts and entertainment scene, and attended meetings and events of the Ohioana Library. Linda serves on the board of this organization that collects, preserves and promotes the works of the state’s writers, artists and musicians. We’re proud of the outstanding efforts of Ohio authors and of the profiles we’ve featured this year on notables such as Cleveland’s Paula McClain, author of the best-selling The Paris Wife, and Cincinnati’s Carrie Bebris, whose novels set in the world of Jane Austen have attracted a loyal following.

With a full year of Ohio Magazine issues (a total of nearly 1,200 pages!) under our collective belt, we’re looking forward to uncovering more of the beauty, adventure and fun of our state in 2012. But first we have lists to make, schedules to keep, spreadsheets to complete, and most important, an acknowledgement to make:

Many thanks to you, our readers, for your support, suggestions and feedback.

In the end, we measure our success by your loyalty.