Happy Holidays! Snow, Star Wars, and Other Rituals to Prepare for the New Year

Woke up to snow this morning after a week or two of miserable cold rain. It was nice to see! But brrr! We Seattle-types are not used to the snow – I’ve had to dig out earmuffs, the “warm” coat, snow boots and mittens this last week! Meanwhile, my midwestern family has been bragging about their 69-degree Christmas weather.

Hope you all are having a wonderful holiday week. We were lucky enough to have a quiet cheerful Christmas with Glenn cooking a delicious Christmas dinner and my little brother and his wife coming over to eat and exchange presents. Below are pictures of the cat dressed in his Santa cap and me in my “Mrs. Claus/Snow Queen” faux-fur sweater set with Glenn in his red sweater for Christmas.

The day after Christmas Glenn and I finally saw Star Wars (Loved it! And finally appreciating the “Emo Kylo Ren” twitter feed!) and then came home, made cheeseburgers, that humble antidote to fancy Christmas dinners, and slept in blissfully til noon. Then got to editing, returning e-mails, and actually felt well enough to think about sending out poems again! This nasty bronchitis really took me out for about a month. Now, the week ahead holds dental appointments, an appointment with a new neurologist since my old one retired a few months ago, and my poor husband getting a CTscan to make sure his diverticulitis has resolved. Yes, let the good times roll! Ha! But seriously, it’s good to get in this medical and dental stuff before the end of the year, because when our deductible resets in January it’s alllll out of pocket for a while.

So, what are you doing to prepare for the New Year? Do you have things you do to get ready to ring it in, besides a glass of sparkly stuff (and a kiss) at midnight? I usually make a “New Year” playlist to set the tone for the new year. Last year’s was pretty melancholy, which seemed right – it was a pretty downbeat year for us. This year’s playlist so far is cautiously upbeat – a little folksy, maybe – some Lord Huron, Vance Joy, and that terrible-but-catchy “Renegades” song I can’t get out of my head! I’ll try to upbeat it a bit before I’m through. And I’m collecting images for yes, another collage-type vision board this year. I think they’re a useful enterprise for people like me who tend to live in language and in their heads, because it requires thinking visually and using your hands to make something, which, as I may have mentioned before, I’m pretty sure I was not too good at in Kindergarten and remain not so good at. My vision boards tend to be dominated by images like typewriters, butterflies, robots, foxes, and women holding birds, for some reason. This year did have several fox visits (mostly because of my visit to San Juan Island for a residency) so maybe these things do work! Wishing you all a very happy 2016, however you choose to mark the New Year!