Goodbye, Christmas; Hello, January.

Okay, now that Christmas is over, I -- like so many others -- would be perfectly happy to just skip past the rest of winter and head right back into summer.

I love Christmas. I love everything about Christmas. And when it's over, I have a few days where I feel a little low, a little sad, about the fact that it's over. There is so much build up and so much preparation for it that when it's over, there's a sense of "now what?" It just like getting married. In those low days, I dread taking down the tree and de-Christmasing the house. I feel like all of the coziness will be boxed up along with the Christmas snowmen, Santas, and reindeer. And, so, I've been dreading this day - today - since today was/is take down the tree day.

But, somehow today, I feel ready to have my living room back. I'm ready to put my glider chair back in the corner and welcome January, in all of it's long, cold glory. Once I am done this post, that is first on the to-do list: take down the Christmas tree. I will miss it, I admit. And I sure hope that Grayson doesn't stop randomly bursting into Christmas carols (Oh Christmas Tree, Here Comes Santa Clause, and Frosty the Snowman), because it makes my heart happy.

But I'm ready to feel clean and decluttered. I move into 2017 with both a sense of fear (when will that stomach bug that's going around strike our house?? Will my loved ones all be healthy and happy this year?) and a confidence that says, "bring it on, because I can handle it." (Note: this confidence is really only with respect to the dreaded stomach flu, not the thought that this could be the year that we receive bad news about the health of someone we love, etc.)

I don't do real resolutions. I feel like they are a waste of time. If I did do them, however, the list would be the exact same that they are every year (and, likely, the same items that appear on most people's lists year after year):

1. Sleep more. Go to bed earlier and get up earlier.
2. Exercise - even for 15 minutes a day at least five days a week.
3. Drink more water and less coffee.
4. Eat better. I eat pretty well, but I could definitely stand to cut out the junk food and baked goods.
5. Read more books.
6. Meal plan.

And those are the things that the perfect version of me would do. She'd probably garden too. At least I have an excuse as to why I'm not doing that in the middle of January.