Michelle Obama scored some crucial victories this year. At the Democratic National Convention, she reminded Americans that her husband was not only the same guy voters were so excited about in 2008, but the same guy who decades ago went dumpster-diving to find a coffee table—back when, she noted, “we were so young, so in love and so in debt.” Her likeability made her not just a key asset on the campaign trail, but also helped her edge out Ann Romney this fall in Family Circle’s cookie recipe contest, which has accurately predicted whose spouse will win the White House in five out of the last six presidential elections. The First Lady also played a key role in enacting new meal standards that kicked in this fall for the National School Lunch Program, which is now selling healthier food in school cafeterias and in school vending machines. Next year’s goal: to get kids to dump less of it, uneaten, in school garbage cans.