#368 Normal things.

I love the holidays. I looked forward to them all year long, and I cranked up the Christmas music on November 1. I put up 3 Christmas trees, went to roughly 162 Christmas parties, made 6 different dishes for potlucks, hung wreaths (or held Ben’s legs as he was dangling out of our second story windows hanging them), drove to Collins and the coast to see family, went to North Carolina for a New Year’s ski trip, and now… And now.
It’s back to normal things.
The trees are both still sitting forlornly in the dark corners of my house, but I’m okay with that for tonight. I love them, but they have their time and place and that will come again in 11 months.
As much as I love the holidays, today was a very welcome relief to wake up, work, and know that there aren’t a million other things on the calendar for this month. These are the amazing, normal, sweet things that happened today, none of which are especially remarkable or in anyway holiday related, and that’s just fine:
1. We slept in. Man, did we need it. Ben felt 100% better when he woke up, thank goodness. He made the bed while I was in my closet changing. This made my heart very happy.
2. I washed 4 loads of clothes, he folded every last thing and put it all away. I was overwhelmed with gratitude.
3. As I worked, he put my Christmas present on display. He bought me metal letters in fun colors for ‘signage’ in my office. It was so thoughtful that he bought them, more thoughtful that he thought to put them on the bookcase for me.
4. We walked to the mall where I purchased new bubble bath, then to the grocery store, so I could make this:
5. He showed me how to use the vintage shaving mug and brush I gave him for Christmas:
I found the whole thing to be terribly cute and gentlemanly. I appreciate that he appreciates something like a good old-fashioned shave.
And now, it’s bedtime on this perfectly normal day. With ranch stew in my belly and bubbles in my tub, I’m ready to sleep and then take on normal old tomorrow.