Echoes.

Christmas is over.
The tree gets put away much more quickly than it is put up.
The presents take only a fraction of the time it took to pick them out online or in the store.
The holiday weight gain starts to settle in and with that comes the usual round of New Years resolutions.

A few I have this year?
A honeymoon. 
Sure, why not… weight loss.  That ever distant carrot.
A 5k.
A husband that lives in the same city as I do.

Just a couple.

Still, today, back at work, there is a part of me that sort of sighs at the routine of it all.
I LOVE seeing the family.
But the gifts?
They seem so unnecessary. 
I’m not ungrateful, just motivated by other things.

My plans for an altruistic Christmas did not come to fruition – but there is always next year… a year that I’ll have my family together in one house (PLEASE, Lord) and surely we three can come up with something?
(I’d include the two four-legged babies on this one, but a bone for everyone isn’t nearly as helpful as they think it would be.)

So.  Farewell to the Christmas holidays.
I’ll miss your laughs and meals but not your long store lines and budget-withering awkwardness.
Perhaps we’ll try to see eye to eye again next year.