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| Grandkids Christmas 2014
Christmas 2014 is over and New Year's 2015 is upon us. This picture of the grandkids was taken Saturday evening by my daughter with her iPhone. We are missing one grandchild, Caden, who was here earlier but ran off to run errands with his dad. It is increasingly difficult to get a picture of all of them together... or even all of my kids and their families together. They each have their own lives and we seem to get them in shifts. But at least we did get to see all of them. Youngest one was down with a fever Christmas Eve and Christmas day... so we didn't see her until Saturday when the fever was gone. But all in all, it was a very nice Christmas. And I'm thankful for that.
But I will say that there's this 'after Christmas' slump that I seem to get every year. After being in high gear (which is definitely not my normal mode) for weeks before Christmas; getting all the decorations up, house cleaned, gifts bought and wrapped, goodies sent out, and all the food prepared.... then the rush of Christmas day and weekend... then suddenly it just all stops. It's Monday and I feel strange.... like I don't know what to do.... and don't have to do anything. This is good in one way as I can rest, but kind of disheartening in another. Weird?
We won't take Christmas down until next weekend. That's our tradition. With all the prep, we might as well enjoy it as long as we can.
The inside cats enjoyed their goodies too. They got a *cat crunchy bag* as well as an assortment of new mice and puffy balls. While they were sent to their restricted area (our bedroom and bath) when everyone was here (they tend to like to run across tables set with crystal, etc.), they were well compensated with treats for this indignity. In this picture above, Ghost has buried herself in the blankets on our bed.
Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. I will spend part of this day reading your blogs posted this past week and catching up.
Have a Safe Happy New Year 2015!
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This blog is meant to be a documentation of our journey into the world of retirement. I know the title should be "Older, but wiser". However, I really didn't know if that would be accurate. The "Older, but better...?" title could also be misleading. The 5 cats in the above pics are: Molly, Rose, Tux, Julie, and Ghost. (I have tried to make this collage smaller, but with no luck...)
Oh yes, the after Christmas slump. Time to clean closets, I guess.
ReplyDeleteI guess... but not quite yet.
Deletei avoided the slump this year by scaling back and scaling back a little bit more. So what I did do in the way of celebration was pleasant and meaningful but my expectations were very low. It worked for me this year.
ReplyDeleteI think we may try that next year, Olga.
DeleteYou remind me of another reason I'm glad that Christmas has grown to simply a nice quiet time together with my hubby. All the rest is gone from our lives now. But I enjoy reading (and seeing) it going on in everybody else's lives! :-)
ReplyDeleteIt's bittersweet, DJan. As we get older, it's harder to get it all done, but you want to do it for the kids and grandkids to have the memories. But as time goes on, we may have to scale back... as Olga mentioned.
DeleteIt's been years since I've had all six grandkids in one place for a picture.
ReplyDeleteI know... it's difficult. Everyone has their own lives and as the grandkids get older, they have their own 'things' too.
DeleteIt's wonderful you were able to spend time with your family over Christmas! I get the slump, it's the go, go, go and then it's over in what feels like a few hours. I think that's like a lot of events in our lives.
ReplyDeleteFor me, it's back to work but only for a week and then I'm off on a five week leave of absence. I'm hoping a change of scenery will give me a chance to refresh and recharge.
Have a great week and Happy New Year!
Oh, I hope you have a wonderful time. 5 weeks! That's so great! Enjoy!
DeleteAnd Happy New Year 2015!!