Pausing for a quiet week

As I write this post there are only a few hours left of December and then the calendar changes to a new month and a new year, 2025. I’ve enjoyed this December and the Christmas celebration. It’s been busy and fun, sometimes hectic and frantic, but I still had time to enjoy quiet evenings and peaceful activities. However, after I returned home from Christmas Day with family I found myself thinking that I was glad Christmas was over, Not in a feeling of relief, but in anticipation of the quiet week ahead.

As a child I enjoyed the week after Christmas, it was a quiet week filled with playing with new toys and carefree days of no school. In the years we lived close enough to visit with grandparents it meant a week with people I loved in a place I loved. There were visits with relatives (oh how hard it was to sit still while adults talked for what seemed like hours), walks in the woods and pasture lands (weather permitting) as well as playing with those new toys.

It felt luxurious to know on Christmas Day that I had a week (actually more) with an empty calendar and lots of unhurried time. The days have slipped by pleasantly, one at a time. The Christmas decorations seem a little more festive now and I made peace with the tree that didn’t turn out like I envisioned. The cookies baked for family are long gone (they shamelessly admitted so). I made a short trip to a nearby town to watch their Christmas lights come on at dusk, clapping and ooooohhing with the crowd. A few naps on the sofa and a few drinks and meals at favorite restaurants were welcome escapes from projects at home. More of the same for the next few days, too.

I hope that each of you has had a wonderful holiday season and have found quiet time this week in your lives. May 2025 be a year of blessings, hope, and joy for each of you!

Happy New Year to each of you!