Skip to main content

My winter vacation

As I look back over the last couple of weeks, I realize how much we actually did. And yet, I feel relaxed and ready for the New Year, energized for work's demands and generally in a very centered and good place.

I've had some thoughts about how to live this new year, which include but aren't limited to:

Manage stress better.


Spend more time outdoors. Really outdoors, like hiking. In the mountains. And cycling, with the road bike. And mountain biking, with the...you get my drift.


Do more yoga.


Mediate regularly.


Be kinder to myself on all levels.


Be even more present in every single moment.

To say our holiday was great would be a gross understatement.  It was a celebration of family, an intensely enjoyable time to just be in moments doing all kinds of things including but not limited to:

Making pierrogies. Annual event involving MIL, SIL, BIL, all my fam, nieces, and lots of eggs, cottage cheese, flour, boiling water and folding folding folding....

Christmas shopping for various family members with other family members, and secreting stocking stuffers and other silly stuff and wrapping and sipping tea...


Lunching. We like to do lunch, it seems. Salads, sandwiches, Mexican food, nouveaux cuisine, we don't care, we'll enjoy munching it at lunch. And we did. A lot.

Working out. Seriously. Runs. Yoga. More runs. Daughter at the gym. A lot. It was fun.

Reading. Lots of beach-y reading. Mysteries. Romances. Suspense romances. Fiction of all kinds. And of course my new Joy of Cooking cookbook, in hardback!, that Hubby gave me for Christmas. (my old one...was paperback, over 30 years old, and held together with a big fat rubber band..I kid you not)

Pampering. The New Year wouldn't be complete without a sparkly set of toesies, right?


Shopping. Seriously. More than we should have, but the sales, they were...really good this year. Really. Suffice to say, Mama got new boots - Fryes - that are kind of a hybrid low heel cowboy/English riding boot. Love them. Already broken in. Mama also found a beautiful Fossil purse..needed a basic, dark brown, durable leather purse for years of use. Found it. Love it already.

Dinners. Lots of them. Sumptuous some, simple others. All good, all with candles and a variety of friends and family...menus included, but weren't limited to:
 
(Xmas dinner potluck at SIL's)
    Lasagna w/spinach
   Ravioli   
   Green Salad
   MIL's Deviled Eggs
   J. Lohr Cabernet
______________________

   Cornish Hens
   Rice Pilaf
   Garlic Green Beans
   J. Lohr Chardonnay
______________________

   Prime Rib
   Au Gratin Potatoes
   Fresh green salad w/lemon vinaigrette
   Kenwood Cabernet
______________________


   Hubby's Spicy Chicken Wings 
   Wild Rice
   Grilled Peppers
______________________


   Red Chili with Pork
   Black Beans
   Macaroni and Cheese (homemade of course, and for the kiddos at the dinner)


_______________________

   
   Crab Legs
   Steamed Artichokes
   Crispy Sourdough Bread
   Korbel Champagne
______________________


   Quiches
    L'orraine
    Crab w/artichoke hearts
    Fresh fruit salad
______________________


   Greek Chicken
   Mapled Winter Squash
   Green salad w/avos and balsamic vinaigrette
______________________


Wow. And I'm sure I missed some. But based on this, I'd have to admit to being semi-obsessed with food. And its preparation. And clearly its consumption.


Watching movies. Good ones. Bad ones. You name it, we probably viewed it during the week.

Laughing. At our foibles. At our seriousness. Because we were just plain happy.

Reminiscing. 'Nuff said.

And now it's over. The vacation part. Son is back in Abu Dhabi. Hubby and I are back at work. Daughter still has a little time to regroup and let her brain recover, which is good. Admittedly, I feel a little empty inside but mostly extremely appreciative and yes, blessed.


All the way around.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Hello there 48

And where on earth did 35-47 go??? But I'm being overly dramatic. Again. See, four dozen? Not such a bad place to be when you're me. I've done a lot, I've seen a lot, I've raised a family and landed airplanes and docked yachts and landed (then released of course!) a marlin and climbed mountains and run a LOT of miles and loved deeply and long and hard and felt..so much that, surprisingly did not kill me..that I feel stronger and more centered and energized than in a long time. And I'm blessed with more than one person can ever rightly expect in one lifetime. And I now possess the wisdom to observe a nanosecond longer than I would have 20 years ago before jumping headlong into a new adventure. Which means many less mistakes but still the desire to stretch and grow and be better and more open and generally less judgemental and overall more accepting and mostly, mostly, knowing that this gift of life is precious and special and mine to experience any way ...

It's been a minute

Oh, what a summer it's been! Heat, the likes of which we have never seen seems to be enveloping the planet. They told us this would happen, and it is.  Now what? Is it time to think underground bunkers? To really explore moon colonies? To continue, on an individual basis to do what we feel we can to help the greater effort? We bought a hybrid two years ago. We'll probably buy an electric car once we feel like the infrastructure is in place, but right now, it's not.  We recycle. Glass ( WHO is drinking all of that wine?! I ask myself each time I toss the bottles into the big bin.). Food. We compost all but animal products, and use it in the garden.  Cardboard/cans/plastics go in the recycle bin each Tuesday. My husband thinks the whole recycle thing is a big scam, and that all of the recycling and trash gets taken to the same place - the dump - because there isn't adequate staffing to sort and really carry out the recycle process.  I feel this is a cynical view, but ...

More angst on the unfinished book

Bear with me here, as I'm nearly at a decision point with this project. Really, I am. As I've reread and contemplated writing the finish, then going back and scrubbing and editing like crazy and generally attempting to update a piece I began so long ago, I've become exhausted. Repeatedly. Last night, in a text exchange with Daughter, I explained I'd picked up the manuscript again and was seriously thinking of finishing it. And she replied, 'Mom, you should just start something new. That thing is almost 20 years old now, and you're a completely different person than you were when you started it. Just know that I look forward to a finished project out of you one day, and really, why not go for something more current and stop wasting time on the old stuff you'll practically have to rewrite anyway? ' Out of the mouths of babes, right?