Post-holidays, Back to reality..

I was hoping to start the year off all refreshed and energized after a nice, luxurious two weeks off. Instead, I seem to be having issues with back-to-reality-blahs. I guess those two weeks spoiled me pretty good; sitting at work all day has been leaving me really antsy now. But more than work, after a week of visiting and constant people around, it’s been a bit of an adjustment getting back to my daily life with weeknights on my own, since Steve is back to traveling this week.

The highlight of the holidays was definitely having so much time with my favorite people. Steve and I are lucky that we grew up in hometowns separated by just a two hour drive, which means we get to stop by both places over the holidays. We had a good week of visiting. We saw many friends and family in a short time ~ the important people, the ones we don’t get to see frequently enough. Lots of family, and old high school friends, and college friends – with a couple new additions in the form of tiny people, as I guess we are hitting that stage in our lives now. Despite all our life changes, it is so good to see old friends and have it feel just as it did, the last time.

my nephew excited after learning to dunk with his new basketball hoop

Christmas is more fun with babies around :)

It was also nice just to have a small break from the city and be back to our more rural roots. There, it felt peaceful to watch the snow fall gently and blanket the world in white. The snow seemed like just an item of decor; an accessory for the winter, with its glittering white expanse across the yard (a yard – a large one, with two ponds, the likes of which is unseen here in the city). So funny being in a place where getting around just means getting in the car and perhaps driving a bit slower if the snow plows haven’t gotten there yet. It’s so different from the inconvenience snow becomes in the city.

 slightly different from the view out of our back window in the city!

Still, after the week of traveling, it was so nice coming home and having some quiet time to ourselves back in our condo. I always cherish the time we have together, just the two of us. There is this restful comfort of being in each other’s company and the simple pleasures we can get from some quiet nights with books, movies and Christmas Ale.

mmmmmmmm........ a Christmas classic ;)

On New Year’s Eve, we spent a good part of the day doing some reorganizing in our closet. Not sure how much you can see form these pictures, but we have a big closet in the second bedroom that serves to store all our excess stuff… it tends to get pretty messy after awhile. So Steve had the genius thought to shift things around to a more efficient configuration (he is good at that… I think he got the 3-d spacial skills which I seem to be missing much of the time). This meant moving the huge Ikea bookcase (actually the second one of these that we own, thanks to good deals on Craigslist!) – and of course, taking everything off of said bookcase, giving us the opportunity to throw out a lot of unnecessary items.

 [closet before: those plastic drawers blocked off a lot of the space, making it hard to get to the shelves]

[closet after: shifted the bookcase to the left and moved filing cabinets/drawers in the space on the right. makes more sense... and it's now a walk-in closet again!]

All this was done while listening to my favorite dance-y Pandora station; with the new-found space from the rearrangement, we had quite the dance party in the closet ;) Afterwards, we went to a New Year’s Eve party with some of our Chicago friends and drank champagne and stayed out til 3; guess we still have a little partying left in us.

Anyway – those were just a few of the highlights from the holidays. Of course it is hard going back to reality after that! Hopefully I will get back in the swing of things quickly enough… I am thankful that we were able to have such a great Christmas break this year.