Merry Christmas, Readers!
Eloise and Family wish you
the happiest of holidays!
We always make Christmas morning fun.
They are never too old
for Christmas morning magic.
Ellen Louise likes surprises, too,
like this wall hanging of a visual representation
of a sound wave.
However,
she does not like the surprise of a camera snap.
On Christmas Eve I always give them a set of
new Christmas pajamas.
They also get a gift to open--
typically a game or a movie.
This year I presented each of them
an Amazon Mystery Box.
The boxes were fun to open,
and we sure got some laughs with these hooded towels,
and fake nail sets.
I expected the boxes to have just a couple of items in each,
so I bought three--
one for each of them.
They were chock full to the top!
Amazon played up the "mystery"
but the word for the box really should be "junk."
If you are a person trying to minimize your life,
this is not the box for you to get.
We got a few good things,
like an outdoor speaker and
this cordless curling iron.
But unless green Halloween wigs,
dog tutus for chihuahuas,
and 600 brand new pandemic masks
appeal to your tastes,
I'd skip the box completely.
The word for our Christmas weather this year was warm!
It was a beautiful day at the Lamp Post on the 25th
and in Marienville on the 26th.
It's a fun practice to choose a word for the upcoming year.
I learned about this from the Happier podcast with Gretchen Rubin.
For the last few years,
I've taken Gretchen's advice,
and chose a word to use
as a fun point of focus
for an entire year.
The first year I tried it,
I thought and thought,
and made lists
upon lists
of words.
I asked myself,
What word should I focus on?
as I sifted through my scratchy writing,
sideways on the page,
amidst the doodles.
I chose
the perfect word
for flitsy-ditsy Eloise.
It worked well for a few months,
then this little thing called a pandemic happened.
So for the next year,
I chose
Last year,
after deciding that focusing on one thing at a time
left me always craving more time
for more things I wanted to do--
Eloise decided to expedite matters.
I chose pair.
Well, actually--
any of these.
I often tried to do two activities at once:
my exercise + dog exercise
dog walk + listen to music
drive around town + podcasts
clean my house + audio book
I thought of my word when I pared down items in my home
to more manageable amounts
(bye-bye million and one tee shirts).
I thought of my word when I matched socks.
I thought of my word when I completed tasks with my husband.
I even ate some of these on a regular basis.
I liked it!
It was a good one and added some fun and connection to my daily living.
I've been thinking for most of December about
my Word of the Year for 2024.
Some words that were strong contenders,
but were eventually sidelined for potential future choices were:
bloom (for the Master Gardners)
and
honey (sweet, vital, golden, healing)
I liked the number word feel that "pair" gave
and considered
trifecta
and
trinity,
pondering a theme of threes.
It didn't seem right for
the year 2024 as it was an even number.
Eureka!
I found it!
even
Isn't even a pretty word?
It has multiple meanings,
which Eloise likes.
smooth
measured
uniform
fair
balanced
Eloise is going to be even tempered in 2024!
(My family just choked on whatever they were taking a sip of,
but I'll show them!)
Wake to sleep hours a bit more even,
I'll start practicing now,
in the last few days of 2023,
and call it a night.
Check back on December 31st
for your bonus blog post:
the annual Lamp Post Year-in-Review, 2023 edition.
It's my favorite to write
every year!
Eloise
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