favorite holiday memory

This was a long and arduous holiday season for me. I always start enjoying the season as soon as Christmas is over, because that is when I finally relax. I’m very self-aware when it is happening that I am stressing and it’s not helping. With time and practice I hope my self-awareness will lead to actual improvement. Right now, acknowledging that there is a problem is the step that I am at, I accept that.

Anyway, there were several highlights from the holiday that I am enjoying reflecting on now. One was the satisfaction of having picked a great toy for the Gander’s cousin’s son. It was a wooden dog pull toy on wheels. He went off playing with it the moment he unwrapped it, so that was great. Another was redecorating our tree with different ornaments (after Christmas) and getting it just the way I finally realized I like it, in time for New Year’s. Ha! #Winning.

My favorite memory of all, was late Christmas night. The Gander and I were staying at his parents house. Our children were already asleep and my in-laws had gone to bed as well. Which left the Gander, his brother, and me, and then the Gander’s best childhood friend came over. He is a great guy, recently engaged, he lives in Chicago now. So it was the four of us hanging out, until very late, smoking herb, and playing these old classic Sega and Nintendo video games. It was kind of like this perfect moment for the three of them to reconnect at the end of the year. And there were moments when I would lean back and just appreciate how great it must be for them to have this time to just chill with each other. That filled me with gladness. It was so mellow, warm, comfortable, and relaxing. Just the best.

And that’s probably my final word on the 2016 holiday. I am ready to move on. I was thinking about writing a post about my best of 2016, which was a good year as far as I’m concerned. But I didn’t get to it, and now it feels too late. 2017 – I’m all yours!