It’s been awhile. I had been trying to focus on my other site but, to be honest, I lost interest and stopped blogging altogether. I couldn’t even handle 30 days in a row for a 30 day health challenge. 😑 I guess there are some basic rules for a healthy lifestyle and I could only come up with so many ways to say the same things. We make health harder than it has to be with fad diets and meal plans and cookbooks and supplements and weird voodoo stuff. Basic nutritional and lifestyle advice can’t compete with that constant barrage of the next best thing and frankly it just made me grouchy. 😖 I’m not saying I will never write about health but I don’t want to make an entire blog about it.
Health IS wealth though and I like money related things. So look for the page on this blog that will house all health related things. Things that will save you money AND make you a healthier person! How about that?
In the meantime, is anyone else feeling like Christmas was weird this year? I have heard the same lament several times that everything felt rushed and not the same. I feel it too. I don’t know if it was because the first Sunday of Advent was the Sunday right after Thanksgiving with Thanksgiving being so late in November or what but man, what just hit me?
I tried really hard this year not to decorate until later because I didn’t want to be Christmas-ed out before the liturgical Christmas season began. I only listen to a symphony station on XM who played Christmas music only on the day before Christmas and on Christmas Day. I made it the whole season without hearing that awful Wham! song or Mariah Carey making me gag at Target. I didn’t set foot in a mall. I only made 2 large purchases on Amazon. No daily packages arriving and losing track. We went to the Nutcracker put on by the local ballet school and went to a really cool light display at a golf course nearby. We participated in our Church’s Christmas pageant and I attended Lessons and Carols at our church as well. I even made it to about the last 5 minutes of a cookie exchange before Lessons and Carols and was shocked to find some leftover gluten free cookies I could actually eat! (I don’t bake unless there is no alternative and there is always an alternative…) We put up our Nutcrackers and had an Advent wreath not the table that we even got around to lighting a couple of times. We did dinner at my moms on Christmas eve to have our traditional seafood crepes and French onion soup and dinner at my house on the big day replete with a $166 Prime Rib roast for 12. But by the end? Meh.
I still felt like I was running around like a crazy person not enjoying anything. It didn’t feel Christmas-y at all. And now I’m supposed to be feasting during this season before Lent hits and all I have is heartburn after 4 days. I am ready to be back to protein shakes for lunch and for my torn oblique to heal so I can get back to kickboxing on Saturdays (I injured it at karate 2 weeks ago and then re-injured it this past Monday in class so I am likely sitting that out on Monday this week too 😢). I am ready for Ordinary Time.
So what am I missing? I tried so hard to focus on what matters and what I really enjoy during this season and apparently it didn’t work. Now what? How do I get to the enjoyment part? Does it really exist? I mean, I didn’t even get a little tipsy on Christmas Day. Truly, other than those lights we went to see, nothing brought much joy. I feel like a dud. And now I am going to a wedding at church tomorrow and while I am exquisitely happy for the couple, I am so not into it. It feels like God is making me sit in my stew and watch all the happy people while feeling decidedly Not Happy and wondering where it went wrong and how to fix it. But maybe that’s it. I can’t fix it. I can’t fix anything. Only God can. I just have to sit here in my daze and stew. Ugh.
How was your Christmas? Really, I won’t be mad if yours was fabulous. I want to hear all about it 🙂 Maybe you can give me some good ideas for next year (please???) 🎄
Hello Liz!
I want to share 1 special thing we did this Christmas. Not only did each of us pick a name from a hat to purchase a gift for another family member (8 adults, each purchasing 1 gift instead of many gifts!) but we also each contributed a “gift theme” idea which was put in a hat.
I was the one to draw the theme from the hat and was so glad to see it was “Locally owned store/ business”.
So we each bought 1 gift for 1 family member and each gift was from a locally owned business!! It was lots of fun!!
You should have seen some of the”gift theme ideas”. I am so glad I did not draw “dollar store” as the theme!!!
Wishing you and your family a very Happy New Year!!
Love Liz