I hope everyone is having a great kick off to the holiday season. I know a lot of people don’t do much on Xmas Eve, but in my memory banks, the eve is just as important as the day itself. It was the day we celebrated with the extended family when I was young. We’d go to my grandparents’ house, and my uncles and aunts and cousins would be there. We’d have a big Italian dinner and lots of snacks and homemade fruit punch. There was homemade sweet cannoli for desert, and we’d spend the day watching TV, playing games, and at some point singing Christmas carols. I wasn’t always excited about the caroling, but I loved my aunt and grandma for getting us all to try it.
Christmas now is very different. My family is mostly in Michigan and with the coming of the next generations (and the loss of my grandparents, who I especially miss during the holidays), the extended family doesn’t come together anymore. This year, Jon and I will be spending Christmas together with no big plans and no gift exchanges. While this sounds sad, it’s really not. First of all, I love spending time with Jon, and this will just be another opportunity to do some fun stuff together. Second, because we don’t know what the near future holds, we’re opting out of giving each other gifts, but since we gift each other little things through the rest of the year, it doesn’t feel like a loss. In fact, when we find out where we’re going to end up, I figure we’ll be gifting ourselves with local museum, gym, and zoo memberships anyway.
I miss my family, but I’ll talk to them on Christmas Day, and I’ll be honest: I’m sometimes not the best person to be around when I get anxious. Even though I don’t spend holidays with them, when we visit during non-holidays, I’m much better and not so stressed, and without the stress of the holidays, I tend to think the quality of our time together is higher.
So that’s my Christmas Eve story, and though it sounds like a bit of a downer, I’m actually really okay this season. Which is a plus, because the holidays can be a sad time for a lot of people. Now…onward to what I’ve been doing.
Yesterday was another bitterly cold day, but we braved it to make it to the gym. I got a much better workout in than I did on Sunday, doing treadmill walking intervals and finishing out with some of the sit down stepper (which is what I’m doing for my arms until I get my nerve up to get back into strength training). I started Season 2 of Zombies, Run and completed the first mission. I’d like to run the chases, but I’m barely comfortable walking on the treadmill, much less jogging it. I’ll wait until I can walk outside again.
Back at the Fortress of Forsh, we had a pot roast dinner and caught up on American Horror Story. Later, Jon watched The Man with the Iron Fists, which I found amusing, though I was trying to watch bits and pieces of it and read my book at the same time. I managed to finish my book before calling it a night. It was good, but I thought it had a sad ending.
Work today went by fast, partially because there was a lot to do and partially because they let us out early. Though we had big plans to go out and look at lights, we just stayed in. I have no regrets. Tomorrow is Christmas and we’re seeing a couple of movies, so our window for light gazing is still open. Plus, it’s supposed to be warmer tomorrow. Tonight, I’m on a reading kick. I finished one book and will likely finish another one before I fall asleep. I tend to get in a reading mode towards the end of the year. There’s no way I’m going to meet my 2013 Goodreads challenge, but I’m pretty sure I’ll be signing up again for the 2014 one, still aiming to read 100 books (even if I fail…again).
Hopefully I’ll have some fun light pics to share tomorrow! Until then, Merry Christmas!
A.
The Romance Factor 