Weekend highlights

We had a rather calm, relaxing weekend.

Despite it being the last weekend before Christmas, we only had 1 thing 'planned' for the weekend, a party at Steven & Thad's on Sat night. So we slept in Sat morning and had a leisurely day as we awaited the winter storm of apocalyptic proportions. After breakfast I ran the dishwasher and watched some shows on HGTV, while Spouse ran to the grocery store to get a few ingredients to make a cake from scratch for the party.

We listened to Christmas music while Spouse made his cake and I wrapped gifts. It was nice to still be together and able to talk to each other while doing different things.

The snow started around 3:30-ish but several times it sort of tapered off. We certainly didn't seem to be getting anything similar to our family in northern VA. We left at 6:00 for the party and the roads just had a thin coating of snow on them. I felt confident in our all-wheel drive Honda CRV but Spouse couldn't resist telling me to "Watch out!" or "Slow down!" any time a nearby vehicle's break lights came on.

A few folks didn't show up for the party due to the weather but we had a great time anyway. Steven cooked enough for a small army and we really enjoyed talking and visiting with everyone who came. The snow increased while we were inside, and when it was time to leave there seemed to be about 3-4 inches of snow on the ground. We drove home slowly and carefully.

Sun was another quiet, relaxing day. At 1:00 we went back to Steven & Thad's for lunch to help them get rid of some of the left overs from the previous night. We even wound up bringing some home. Some conversation resulted in Thad pulling out envelopes of old photos and we had more than a few belly laughs on his account.

We got home at 5:30 and just watched TV and used the computer until bedtime.

One of the reasons for our calm, relaxing weekend was that we decided not to decorate our house or put up a tree this year. Earlier in the month we just had too many things going on, plus we felt as though we'd just gotten our house back together and cleaned after the addition. I also did not do my usual baking of cookies for the neighbors or a holiday party this year.

I bring this up because so often people lose the joy of the holidays by feeling obligated to keep every Christmas tradition, every year. They stress themselves out and worry over activities that should be joyful. Our suggestion is that you allow yourselves the permission to skip a year for some of your holiday traditions if you are feeling stressed or behind. Your neighbors will not starve without your cookies, nor will they vote you off the block for not decorating your house.

I am content that this year I got over 140 holiday cards in the mail, went to 5 parties, and purchased/wrapped 15 gifts. All I have left is to purchase some gift cards for the teenaged nieces and nephews. I am totally OK with the fact that we didn't decorate our house, put up a tree, bake cookies, or host a holiday party this year.

There's always next year!

Crush du Jour: Sebastian Rivers