So That Was Christmas

All of the interior lights are down inside somewhat stately Taylor Manor.  The Dept 56 (and various knockoff) village has been disassembled and placed carefully back within protective styrofoam and cardboard boxes.  The tree is still standing, but stripped of lights and adornments.  It comes down New Year's Day, along with all of the exterior lighting.

In year's past I have always dreaded the way the house looks after all of the festive Christmas decorations are down, but not this year.  I'm not entirely sure why.  Perhaps it was due to the pall cast on the entire holiday when a madman made headlines in Newtown, CT.  I'll be honest, that tragedy took the wind out of my holiday sails and threw me (and The Better Half) for a loop.  Christmas just wasn't Christmas this year...

However, I still enjoyed spending time with my family, having neighbors over for Christmas Eve dinner (even though I was a bit of a wreck the next morning), and watching my kids open presents.  Maddy is clinging to her belief in Santa and we did everything we could to keep that fire burning in her...to the point where she'll be receiving a thank you letter from him sometime this week as she laid out quite the spread for Saint Nick.  Jossy and Katelyn are still true believers, but I'll be shocked if either of them is still believing in Santa at age 9.  We'll see, I'll play it up even when they stop believing, if only for myself. 

So, now there is New Year's to look forward to...and a couple of weeks after that my birthday.  Not that my birthday is a national holiday (yet!), but it is kind of important...at least to me.  Unlike year's past, I don't really plan on making any resolutions because I really, really suck at sticking to them.  In fact, I'm really bad at goals altogether.  I despise making plans or lists to the point that I feel I subconsciously derail them out of spite.  Therefore, no resolutions or goals this year...but themes.  That's right, I'm moving forward with an overarching theme for this next year.  That theme will be 'less is more'. 

Last year I set some very aggressive writing goals for myself and choked harder than Tony Romo in a big game.  Not one goal I set was met with anything remotely within the same zip code as success.  In fact, I regressed as a writer, my vocabulary dwindling to the point I made Hemingway seem verbose.  A 100 word vocab may work for a two year old (or Hemingway), but let's be honest, I've been downright boring lately.  Rather than set out to write the great American novel this year, I just want to be create something each day that I feel good about...be it a blog post, tweet, or something on Facebook (although quitting FB might be in the cards as well, it angers up the blood and muddies the water).  We'll see if this sparks something...

Luckily, I've already adopted the 'less is more' when it comes to working out and diet.  I lost a good deal of weight before our Disney trip over the summer, but it all came back with a vengeance in a hurry.  Over the last 8 weeks or so I stopped with the crazy dieting and over the top workouts, scaling both of them back.  Being closer to 50 than 30 has forced me to listen to my body more, especially my joints.  Having to accept certain limitations due to arthritic knees wasn't easy, but had to be done.  Since doing so I've actually been able to exercise more effectively, I've dropped a few more pounds and about an inch from the waist...even better, I'm off my blood pressure medication. 

The Stuff Reduction goal of the past several years has been nothing short of a tragedy as well.  I seem to sabotage myself quite a bit on that one.  However, we all become slaves to our stuff...car payments, mortgages, cable bills, phones...it all has become too much and taking a step back and downsizing is a theme as well...

I hope you all had a great Christmas, share anything you would like in the comments about changes you hope to make in the new year....