Squishy Time...

We're in that last little squishy time of the year. The stretch between Christmas and New Year. A lot of people have it off work, and if they don't have it off, they usually have a lighter workload.

Unless you work in retail and then you are SLAMMED busy this weekend again after being SLAMMED busy for the whole month before. Then January rolls around and you get to do inventory. Joy to the world...

But for a lot of people it's kind of squishy time. The kids aren't in school, there are offices that just close down for the week because so many people are on vacation. You are still in holiday eating mode so you yourself are getting a little more squishy as well.

This year for us Brent's working the whole time since he just got off of sabbatical and wanted to make sure his team got a chance to take the time off. But it's still really light work days. There isn't a lot going on because so many people are off. So we are in a sort of half normal holding pattern looking to the New Year. I'll watch a lot of Junior Hockey (go Team USA! Nice start to the tournament!) and wrap up my 2024 goals while planning my 2025 out.

It's just low key.

Which is lovely.

Christmas was good. Katie and her girlfriend came over on the 23rd and stayed until last night. Amber got a taste of no expectations holidaying. We don't do anything. Not formally. We have movies we watch, and certain types of meals we eat, but we don't exchange gifts or have holiday services or require anyone to put on anything more than pajamas all day on Christmas. So she got to see what that was like. Though she did get us a gift. Which was really sweet. It was a personalized drawing for us so we really appreciated it.

We started the low key thing quite a few years ago. And it was a sort of shaving things off. Travel over the holiday is a pain in the ass so we stopped going back to New Mexico. That was the first thing to go. Then as Katie got older and I was able to convince Brent that I meant it when I said I didn't want anything, gift giving got lighter and lighter until we were only doing candy in our stockings. And we were picking out our own candy. Then the good candy store in the mall closed and the replacement got really lame so we stopped that too.

For the past few years decorations have been minimal as we tried to balance out enjoying the pretty things and fighting with Tig not to eat them. We put the tree back up this year, but didn't decorate it. Maybe next year for that again.

Basically we do the things we really enjoy. The special meals. The traditional movie watching. The hanging out with each other. But we shed everything else.

I suggest it for everyone. Think about your holiday this year. What worked for you? Like what was the part you enjoyed? Keep that. That's on the keep list for sure. What didn't you enjoy? Or even if you enjoyed it, the stress of getting it done was more than the enjoyment of it? Return on investment. Was it a good ROI? If not, then don't do it next year. Start shaving off the bits that don't work. I don't care if you've always done something, if it's not enjoyable then stop. Or cut back on it.

When the kids are little there is only so much you can shave. You will have school programs and Santa visits and other non negotiables that might not be the greatest fun for everyone, but that time passes soon enough. As they age, only keep the things you love. And ask them what the things they love are. They might surprise you. A few years ago I was going to ditch a couple of the movies and Katie was like no...we always watch this one and that one and that's not changing. Okay. Cool. We'll keep those. Even if we can all recite all the lines along with the films.

This time of year is a good time to think about how you want to celebrate next year. This squishy time. So put some thought into it while you pack away the decorations and the leftovers and plan your New Year New You delusions.

What did you really love about the holidays this year?
What didn't you?

For me the broccoli casserole was a giant miss and won't be coming back and I think we'll try and move soup dumpling dinner back a few days again. Maybe instead of a set date it will become the Saturday before Christmas sort of thing. And I'm still tempted by matching pajamas.

Happy Squishy Time! I hope it finds you happy and content and wearing soft clothes.