This is the downtime I've been looking forward to, as I know Christine has, for a very long time. We need it, we crave it, we love it. We savor it. We use its time well. It's too short anyway.
As for me, I love the day after Christmas and the rest of the days leading up to New Year's Eve. I have been starting to train for my next 5K, which I have vowed to do intelligently this time. I run/walk for 1.5 minutes on and off for 20 minutes total, sandwiched between 5-minute warmup and cooldown. Seems to work. I have to remember to stretch afterward or my shins will splint and calves contract. I'm old, remember.
Then there is crocheting, which I've started to use as a stress-reliever. Sometimes it works and other times it just makes me more stressed out. But it's sort of fun and an excuse to just sit motionless on the couch for long periods of time.
Finally there is the old book-reading marathon holiday ritual. I love to pile up books and see how many I can read. I love curling up with a good book -- TV, Internet, and phone turned off -- under a throw blanket (soon to be one I've crocheted maybe).
On the cooking front, all the invitees to our Christmas soiree brought dishes they made, and I brought spanakopita, a spinach-feta cheese-phyllo dough item I had just learned to make. The first time I made this dish I made it as a pie with phyllo dough on the bottom and phyllo dough on the top. But for Christmas I wanted to make it the "right" way, in little phyllo dough triangles. To make it this way you brush melted butter on a strip of dough, plop a spoonful of spinach mixture an inch or so from the end, then start folding it over like you would fold a flag. I remembered how to fold a flag from Girl Scouts. It has finally had a practical use.
I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday!
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