December 28th, 2018

So that's it.  All of the excitement of the holidays is nearly over and life is gradually resuming it's normal schedule.  Or what passes for normal anyway.

It's always a little weird when I think about it.  For several months now, the pace has been ramping up gradually.  Since, well, Halloween really.  We just kind of dip our toes into the excitement of the the holiday season at Halloween.  Trick-or-treaters, costumes, decorations are everywhere, a few parties and even the TV schedule starts showing the changes with a lean toward Scary. I had renditions of "The Monster Mash" running through my head for a few weeks.

Then we segue into Thanksgiving which is less music but more food centered with feast planning and a slight change in decor and a lot of family which is really the very best part!  There are always a few Thanksgiving related Hallmark special movies and then with one single showing of A Miracle on 34th Street we dive directly into Christmas.  The Santa season does officially begin with the day after Thanksgiving being 'Black Friday' or every retailers worst nightmare and salvation at the same time.  And in my case, the Cookie Baking Marathon" and everything involved with that.

The Christmas Season is really only one month long but it is packed top to bottom and side to side with stuff. From the moment it starts until Christmas Day, there is barely time to breath.  It's exciting, it's fun, and busybusybusy!  

Decorating the outside, decorating the inside, putting up a tree. Shopping and shipping and wrapping and packing and finding hiding places.  Secrets and baking and eating and greeting and writing Christmas Cards.  Christmas music fills the air, the Christmas movies are everywhere, on TV and in the theatre to say nothing of all of the old favourites on DVD's.  Even the commercials and ads are different

Christmas is a perfect storm of nostalgia and new together in the same time and space.  It's a physics anomaly.   Watching "It's a Wonderful Life" in black and white on a giant flat HD flatscreen because it's just not Christmas without that very old film makes me giggle a little bit, but in a marvelous way.

There are so many parties and dinners  and luncheons and gift exchanges and events of all sorts! Yes, it can feel like a lot of pressure sometimes, but it's also exciting and fun and completely out of our ordinary routine which is, of course, part of the joy of it all.

In our case, with our anniversary one week before Christmas (what were we thinking?) we have even less prep time for Christmas because we almost always take a little trip to celebrate. And what's more, I wouldn't give it up for anything.  We look forward to it every year and every year it just makes those few weeks before we leave even more crazybusy than usual, but it's totally worth the extra bit of hustlebustle.

And then everything peaks with Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and New Years, bam, bam bam, one right after the other.  It's like the end of a fireworks show.  And then....and then...and then....it's done.  The marbles all fall back into their proper holes and life goes back to what it was before it all started.  The decorations return to their 11-month naps and the tree either goes out to a landfill, to be planted or back into it's box.  Eventually all of the Holiday goodies are eaten, given away or thrown away.  New books find room on book shelves and new clothes into closets.   Once the finally vacuuming up of glitter and pine tree sprills is done and the New Years Celebrations have come and gone,  the holiday is really and truly over.

And it's a little bit sad.  But a little bit of a relief too.  I went to my normal Pilates class today for the first time in two weeks!  It was the first Friday that felt like a Friday in a little while.  Getting back into our usual routine actually feels pretty good.  

I believe that "routine" gets a bad rap. The connotations of routine are "dull", "boring" and "ordinary" all negative words.  And really routine is none of those things.   Oh I enjoy the fun and excitement of shaking things up a bit too, don't get me wrong. But I wouldn't want an entire life of that.  I like the..... I don't know what to call it, security maybe? ...... of knowing that if it's Wednesday, I'm working at the museum.  I know which days I'm probably ironing, which days I'm probably grocery shopping, which days I'm free to go hiking with my sister.  And while all of our holidays were jam packed with fun, I am actually very happy to return to our regularly scheduled program, oh wait, I meant life :)

Enjoy your weekend and your New Years Eve, however you choose to spend it. And embrace returning to your usual routine afterwards. It's nearly time now.  I probably won't be posting here during the New Years' Celebration, but I guess you probably will too busy having fun to be here either.  I will be back to My old routine beginning next Wednesday.  Hope to see you then!