Getting on

The holidays have come. The holidays have gone. Normal life has returned.

What the hell am I saying? There is no such thing as normal life. Any time I think I have found a point of normal everything gets all jumbled up again and I am set back to wondering what the hell it is I am supposed to be doing. I think that in itself is fairly normal so I won't panic about it.

Everywhere I look I am seeing people post about things that happened in the last year and things they hope for for next year. It is one of those things you can't avoid this time of year. As surely as my gym will be packed with well intentioned resolutionists, the internet will be full of retrospectives and resolution lists.

I am not one for resolutions. While I do like a good retrospective, rarely does it come in the form of a year in review. Just attempting to think about this past year is utterly exhausting. Considering I haven't been sleeping for squat here lately, that is not a happy prospect. The last thing I need is to be more tired.

I also can't really seem to make myself look ahead to the future. I am working really well with one day at a time just now. I have faire looming over me and I honestly can't think much past what I need to do right now for that.

I will say I had a pleasant enough holiday. For some reason it never managed to actually feel like the holidays. Even after the tree went up on Monday, it just didn't feel festive. I think having Christmas fall on a Wednesday was the problem. What normally would have been days of food and movies and togetherness was reduced to barely a day of celebration because everyone had to work.

The nice thing was that I got the entire week off, so I was at least able to relax. Not terribly holly jolly, but well appreciated. I think that I will endeavor to take an entire week off at Christmas more often. It was the best present I could have ever given myself.

Oh and that reminds me that I got some great presents. The husbeast did extremely well in buying me new dishes, new cutting boards, an ice cream maker, a dutch oven, and a new TV for the kitchen. He commented later that looking back he felt a little misogynistic for buying me primarily kitchen gifts. He said next time he will buy me shoes to at least counteract it a little. I also got some books and a ton of DVD's, which is always a win in my world.

The gifts I gave were very well received as well. I only made one person cry this year, but I am alright with that. I spoiled my people rotten, but that is pretty standard for me. I love giving gifts. Seeing everyone so very happy as they unwrapped things warmed my heart. It was probably the only time I felt really festive the entire time.

Now that we have gotten past New Years and out of the Holiday's proper, I am happy. I can focus on faire and life in general and not have the lingering looming festivities to take into consideration. One thing off my mind is a good thing.

I hope that you my minions managed to have a pleasant holiday season. I hope you found your festivity more than I did. I hope you got to relax some, eat too much, spend time with loved ones, and get some good swag. I hope that the new year is going to hold good things for all of you.

 Ready or not 2014, here we come.