Hello friends, and a very happy New Year to you all.
How was your Christmas? We were blessed with a very special Christmas here and as our first one living together, it was everything I hoped it would be and more. We travelled to Wales to spend it with our parents (who live just 15 minutes down the road from each other) and while we spent Christmas Day in our respective homes, the days surrounding the 25th were a blur of to-ing and fro-ing between houses, visiting friends and relatives and a stay away in a beautiful cabin with a hot tub in the Brecon Beacons. We were home for New Year and gave ourselves two days to catch up on laundry, find homes for our new presents and play our new games before going back to work.
As our first Christmas together, we realised some things that we want to remember for future holidays and Christmases, in order to make them as harmonious as possible. This makes it sounds as though Christmas was fraught with challenges and arguments but it really was quite the opposite.
Firstly, having two days at home before going back to work was an excellent idea and should be implemented wherever possible. I think everyone knows that and often people say "I want a day at home before going back to work" but having two days made a big difference as there was no rush to get everything done in one day.
Secondly, we should never plan things for the evenings. Neither of us enjoy going out in the evening and as a natural morning-person, I'm pretty useless after 6pm. Going out for dinner isn't excluded from that and I'm also no longer allowed to bake in the evening.... I know, this might seem odd, but as two natural introverts, we both prefer to hunker down in the evenings and spend them cosy indoors. No matter how much we love eating out, even that is marred by having to get dressed when we'd rather be putting our pyjamas on. As for baking, this Christmas I made a gingerbread house and a yule log and I made both in the evening. As much as I love Christmas baking, doing it after dinner is never a good idea; once I start to get tired, my mood goes downhill very quickly and I always end up regretting that I've started, because now I have to see this bake through! Next time I make a gingerbread house, I will bake and assemble it over two days, starting in the mornings.
Possibly the best idea we had for our next Christmas, is to have batch-cooked meals ready in the freezer and a shopping list already written so that we don't have to think about what we're going to eat when the leftovers run out. This was easily the worst thing about coming home from Christmas - we had no "real" food in and as two 30-somethings we had been unashamedly living off our parents for the past week. We love to cook and plan our meals but even we struggled to plan normal meals after a week of turkey and ham. Next Christmas, I will make sure there are plenty of delicious meals made up in our freezer and a shopping list written and ready to go so that we don't have to do that when we're still in that state of post-Christmas languishing. If we did online shopping I would make sure we had an order placed, ready to be delivered when we got back but we like to do our shopping in person.
I loved our Christmas and am already looking forward to the next one which is going to look completely different as we travel up North to spend it with my sister and extended family. But after every Christmas, I am always met with a hint of the January blues as the decorations come down and things return to normal. This year I have noticed the little things that make January more enjoyable and in their own way have been something of a cure for the annual winter blues.
Extending the festivities.
For me, one of my favourite things about
Christmas is the food. I love the party food, the snacks, the mountains of chocolate and one thing that has made the transition back to "normal" easier this year has been the inclusion of leftovers and Christmas snacks in my work lunchbox. Giving myself something really tasty to look forward to at lunchtime has always been something I love to do, but this Christmas edition has definitely made going back to work more enjoyable than usual.
Keep playing games.
If games aren't a feature of your Christmases then maybe this one won't be for you, but as keen board-gamers Watson and I unsurprisingly love to play at all times and Christmas is no exception. Maybe I love board games so much because they remind me of Christmas but either way, continuing the Christmas routine of playing a game after dinner has kept the Christmassy feeling alive for me well into January this year.
Take down the decorations gradually, leaving the tree until last.
This tip actually comes from one of my clients but is such a good one that I'll be implementing it every year from now on. If like me, you love to festoon the entire house in decorations for the festive period, than like me, you might find the task of taking them all down again rather daunting. Doing it all in one go is a big task and personally, I find going from 100% Christmas down to zero to be quite a shock to the senses. I love decorating for Christmas so much, that seeing it all gone again in one fell swoop is borderline upsetting. At the same time, after a month of maximalist décor, I do look forward to having my house back so reducing the décor during the week from New Year to twelfth night is the perfect compromise. Down comes the tinsel and the garlands, away go the festive cushions and displays so that all that remains is the tree which I will enjoy to the full right up until twelfth night.
Save gifted toiletries and candles until after twelfth night.
Receiving lovely bath products, especially luxurious moisturisers, has become something of a tradition/expectation for me and this year was no exception. I began using my new favourite moisturiser right away but it occurred to me, once the leftovers had been eaten and the tree had come down that if I hadn't already started using it, then having it to open on twelfth night would have been a perfect treat to look forward to after taking down the tree. If "smellies" (do your family call them smellies too?) aren't your thing then choosing a special candle is a lovely idea too. I thoroughly enjoy putting my living back in order once the tree is down, and making it cosy with soft lighting and a gorgeous candle is always the finishing touch for me.
Have something to look forward to.
No doubt the biggest difference this year is that we have a holiday booked in February to look forward to. I know this won't be do-able for everyone but something on a smaller scale like a day out or a special at-home activity (for me it's a movie night in a blanket fort - yes, I am still five years old at heart) could work just as well as long as it's something you are looking forward to. If you can book a week, a few days or a long weekend off in February then do it. While most of us enjoy time off over Christmas, all that rushing around and socialising isn't actually very relaxing, so it's no wonder that January can feel like hard work. Taking some time out mid-winter is good for the soul. It has the two-sided effect of lifting your mood in the run up by giving you something to look forward to and also recharging your batteries during, which we could all use a little more of.
In the days after we got back home and went back to work, I found that I was having trouble sleeping. I was waking several times in the night and found myself fretting that I would have to get up soon, like you do when you have set your alarm earlier than usual. Night after night this was occurring, but it didn't appear to be affecting my energy in the mornings and I was bouncing out of bed earlier and earlier each morning. I had a vague memory of the same thing happening before and marked it as a red flag. The past two winters I have suffered with SAD which is why I'm taking precautions this year to prevent it. I think my broken sleep pattern was the first indicator and an early warning sign which, if I hadn't caught it early, would have tripped the switch on the low mood and plummeting energy levels that came with the last two winters. I knew my diet would be having an effect as I was still feasting on Christmas leftovers but more importantly was the time at which I was eating. I usually stop eating at around 6pm but after Christmas, I was grazing on chocolate right up until bedtime so of course, my body was still digesting and processing mounds of sugar while I was trying to sleep. Once I stopped the late-night snacking, my sleep returned to normal and I'm very pleased to report that no other SAD symptoms have appeared as of yet.
Having clear goals for 2024 seems to be another thing that is helping my mindset this winter. In the first couple of weeks after Christmas, before my goals were clearly laid out, I felt a little like I was lacking direction. I knew what my goals for my business were for this year, but without putting pen to paper and breaking them down into their steps, I didn't know what I should be doing on any given day. I love structure and giving myself a routine helps me get out of bed in the morning. I love waking up knowing what I'm going to work on that morning before work and planning my days in line with my business goals has made getting up when it's still even easier than usual (again, morning person!).
I am mindful that when we come back from our holiday in February, there is a chance that without that to look forward to, the winter blues could hit harder than ever, but I'm hopeful that by giving myself that time to rest and fill up my cup, that what will actually happen is that I will return to work revitalised and raring to go. I will make sure that there are tasty meals in our freezer and a shopping list written, a new candle to look forward to and there will be a new goal in the calendar to move towards.
Please don't think that I'm wishing away January or that I'm suggesting you do the same. I'm really not. Direction is a good thing and it gives every day purpose but the most important thing whilst moving towards these goals and dates is to remember that achieving them really isn't the point at all, it's what you're creating and who you're becoming along the way that really matters. Having a goal to work towards is a wonderful thing, but it's even better when you're enjoying the journey towards it and remembering to stop and smell the roses along the way. Happy January all, it really can be the most wonderful time of the year.
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