welcome December

well, I survived my month of daily blogging ~ only missed a few days. I'm happy with how it went overall. It did seem to ingrain a habit of writing into me because November is over, and I'm still here!

December came in today with big fluffy snowflakes and the Chicago winter chill, after a fairly mild November. Quite appropriate weather for establishing that yes, it is now December! This transition has me thinking about new goals... I want to keep writing this month, probably not every day, but closer to last month's frequency than the previous months. I'm also determined to balance peace and productivity, and to be merry. There is a *lot* going on as always. And I can't help feeling kind of stressed out because Steve's work project is entering a final phase which means lots of work on the weekends and even during the holidays. I was bummed out at that prospect, since I would ideally like my December to be filled with happy festive activities that we can enjoy together. What fun is it to go through traditions all alone?? Feeling like we would miss out this year led to all the worrying that I alluded to on Monday.

But - I will find a way! I'm determined to include our favorite traditions this month, it will just take some careful balancing. And over all I want to keep things cheery and work in a feeling of peace into the season.
I started this off today by dealing with the cold instead of whining about it, embracing the coziness of a big sweater and fun knee high socks (only $2 at Target!) and hot cups of cacao-mint tea. And by kicking off my Christmas music play list while I worked :) So far so good - let's hope I can keep it up!