Restoration Holiday

Five stars. (★★★★★)

I'm soaking in the last minutes of holiday break, and wishing it wasn't over. Reflection helps set memories, so here's a recap:

Caught up with family and friends. It was nice to see Carrie, Chad, Jimmy and Jess in Wisconsin for good food, downtime and a couple of short walks in the snow. Plus other catch-ups over video and text throughout the break. All of the gifts I received were perfect and made me happy; I hope I hit the mark with my gifting.

Practiced self-care. I continued my 4:15 a.m. wake-up and running routine every day I could, got back into regular yoga and semi-regular meditation. I made two trips to Watercourse Way for a soak and sauna. I started journaling with the Day One app; we'll see how that goes. Also, does wine count as self-care? Let's say it does. Oh, and I got myself a back massager, which I love.

Got out a bit. I was happiest nesting at home but I did make it out for a morning hike in the redwoods. It was nice but chilly - and I forgot how muddy it can get this time of year. I also checked out the nighttime holiday lights at Filoli Gardens on New Year's Day; the decorations were beautiful but the fingernail moon stole the show.

Massively dented my to-do list. Cleaned the whole house, dropped a trunk full of stuff at Goodwill, shipped a box of clothes to ThredUp, migrated this blog to a new platform (very time-consuming project that needed to be done), got my hair done, checked off a million other odds and ends that had piling up. Listened to a few books and many hours of podcasts while puttering around.

Indulged in non-productivity.  To balance the tasking, I did a bunch of puzzles with my morning coffee, a ton of online shopping for myself and gifts for others, watched the last two seasons of Snowpiercer, napped, lounged.

Refilled my introvert cup. Yes, most of the holiday break was solo - and I loved it. It was genuinely good to see people and share love and good wishes, but I really needed a bunch of days to myself.

Today I took down the Christmas decorations; the condo looks plain and I feel melancholy. But I have a Tahoe getaway tentatively planned around my birthday, and there's always something to look forward to.