Anyone here feeling the New Year’s Blues? January always feels like a weird transition period. We’ve come off a run of festivities stretching from Halloween to New Years only to hit a block of “normalcy”.
So far everyone I’ve chatted with IRL has agreed this past holiday season was “meh”. It’s as though December 2023 unleashed additional challenges for many. Yet coming back to a regular routine seem to trigger anxiety and exhaustion. At least, I know it does for me.
Of course, the wintery weather, whatever that looks like in your area of the world, can bring on a temporary malaise or some degree of seasonal affective disorder. Yesterday I posted a few photos of our dreary weather in Phoenix, which has lingered from about mid-December forward. As much as we Phoenicians moan about lack of rain, having days and days of rainy, cloudy, foggy, windy and *gasp* cold weather with little to no sun in sight has been an adjustment. Still- can’t complain as there is no threat of blizzards out here.
Not to make light of anyone grappling with seasonal affective disorder or post-holiday blues, there are some great resources out there to help us navigate through this time, such as this blog post from Spring Health.
This January feels a bit stranger than usual as I was ready for the holidays to be over, yet there is still this feeling of transition. I, like many of my peers, felt this past holiday season was very “meh”.
My holiday season in particular felt truncated. Work had some extra ‘surprises’ (i.e. extra workload and deadlines), and there various obstacles surrounding many of my friends and family in December. As such I got late start to putting up the Christmas tree and getting the Christmas lights on the house.
So- to help combat these post-holiday blues, I thought I’d share some gratuitous pet photos.
Although I did eventually put up some holiday decorations, it was heavily edited from previous years due to the addition of Sparky, a now 10-month-old kitten I rescued after Easter. Below is Sparky taking it easy during the holiday break.
Sparky at rest. Knocking down ornaments takes a lot of energy.
My artificial tree can go as high at 9ft, but I went with the 7 ft set up and left many of the glass ornaments safely packed away due to the unknown reaction Sparky may have to the tree and decorations. Glad I held back. Sparky was thoroughly fascinated by the tree and viewed it as a vending machine of new toys. I lost count of the number of ornaments Sparky knocked off the tree.
Sparky in his new favorite hangout.
By Christmas, most of the ornaments on the lower half of the tree had been relocated to the top half of the tree or collected in a box sitting on top of the piano.
Meanwhile across town at my uncle’s house, his 12 year old cat Missy was super fascinated with the Oscar Meyer Weinermobile ornament.
That darn cat.
Don’t worry folks- one lick of the plastic and she promptly lost interest in this ornament.
Leave the flash off your camera when taking pictures of cats.
As such, we opted to not place gifts under the tree this year thanks to our furry friends. Rather, wrapped gifts were left on tables or in closets until Christmas Day. But hey, their antics brought a smile to our faces, and were a definite bright spot of the 2023 holiday season.
One more thing… I had already crafted this post when I learned of the bloguary challenge. Today’s prompt poses the question “do you spend more time thinking about the future or the past?”. While I didn’t specifically answer this question, I do feel this relates to the topic as this was a reflection on the past month. I actually have a lot of things on my calendar in the coming weeks that give me pause to enjoy the present and look forward to the future. I would say it’s an even split for me- I feel it necessary to revisit the past in order to plan out the future. Maybe that is a cop-out, but it’s my honest answer.
Whether you had an awesome holiday season, a “meh” holiday or are currently experiencing a Crappy New Year, let’s remind ourselves to be hopeful for the future. There are always better times ahead.
Thank you for stopping by!
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