New Year's Eve/Day in 2020

Actually I should go back a bit further - we got back from the mountains on 12/28, with my niece in tow as her flight back to Seattle didn’t leave until 6am the next morning. We had “second Christmas” dinner with my inlaws that night so they could give the kids their Xmas presents.

My husband is a rock star, so he got up with my niece at 4am and drove her to the airport. The man loves me and knows I need my sleep ;)

Sunday (12/29) I had D&D, so I picked up my friend L (aka Eeyore) and we drove to M’s house in town for our usual game & brunch. I usually try to bake something for brunch but I knew I wouldn’t have the energy, so I had picked up some fried apple pies and a growler of hard cider from the apple orchard we visited in the mountains and I brought those for everyone to share. The game was fun, though I couldn’t stop yawning as the week’s exhaustion was catching up with me. I got home that evening, cooked dinner, and went to bed at a relatively reasonable hour.

Monday (12/30) I was working all day. Some months earlier, I’d set up the kids’ physicals for that day, and I had thought I’d be able to take them as the appointment was at 9 and I typically don’t go in until 11:30am on Mondays - but because the library was on holiday hours, I had to go in at 9:30am, so poor Rob had to take the kids to their appointment. It wasn’t really a big deal, they just needed one shot each and their general check up.

Tuesday was New Year’s Eve, and I was working again - though only half a day. You’d think the library would be quiet over the holidays, but not my area! We were pretty busy all day, and I was still super tired from vacation. My friend J wanted to go shopping that afternoon, but I had to get groceries and I’d promised the kids ice cream so even though I got off work at 1pm it was 3pm before we managed to get together. We took the kids to get ice cream and then went to Ulta, where I spent too much money on cosmetics but I really love everything I bought!

I’d sent out a general invitation for a casual NYE get-together at our house, but I thought only two friends were coming over so I wasn’t stressing. But when I got home from shopping with J, I saw that three more people had RSVP’d and went into a cleaning/cooking frenzy. Then I tried to take a nap but the dogs were worked up because people had already started shooting off fireworks, so that didn’t go terribly well. I did manage about a 20-minute nap, which is good because otherwise I might not have made it to midnight!

It was a lovely, relaxed NYE. We played board games, watched a bit of Firefly (there was a marathon on TV), and toasted with champagne (ginger ale for the kids) at midnight. I kicked everyone out at 1am because I am old and tired and really needed to go to bed - but of course I had to clean up first, so it was 2am before I crawled into bed.

Yesterday I was relieved to wake up and realize I didn’t have anywhere to be in a rush. Rob brought me coffee and I just read in bed until nearly noon. I always cook my family’s traditional New Year’s Day meal on Jan. 1 and force my poor Puerto Rican inlaws to eat it (pork roast, cornbread, collard greens, black eyed peas), and Sophie had asked if one of her friends could come over and spend the night, so the afternoon got a wee bit hectic again - but the meal came off without a hitch, so that was lovely. By the time they left and the kids all went to bed, I was exhausted again.

Today should be pretty low-key. The girls are still asleep and David is playing on his computer, and Rob had to go to work though he’ll probably be home early. I’m happy that I don’t have to be back at the library until Saturday; I’m hoping to run some errands with the kids tomorrow, but today should be nice and quiet. I’m watching the season premiere of Married at First Sight while I type this (what can I say, I have a weakness for crappy reality TV) and I’m glad there isn’t much on the agenda today.

I hope to be more realistic about goal-setting this year. Last year brought a ton of changes, plus we had to recover emotionally and financially from the shitshow that was 2018. This year I just want to relax and settle in. I’d like to start painting the interior of the house, which means I need to pick colors and get supplies; I want to be more active, and start doing yoga and walking the foster dog. Duchess is getting too old and stiff to really walk too far, which makes me sad, but I don’t want to push her and end up with an injury. At some point, the foster dog will go back to her family and we will start looking at puppies - it’s Rob’s turn to pick a dog!

I know not everything will be easy this year. It might well be my mom’s last year, and my inlaws aren’t in stellar health either. I just hope it’s a mostly drama-free year.