As of tomorrow, I’m off from work until Tuesday, January 3. Every year, the campus is closed from Christmas to New Year’s, and I had three vacation days left to use for 2022, so I’m using them this Wednesday to Friday. So how am I spending the next 13 days?

Working on blog posts: Those include my year in review, December monthly review, resolutions/bucket list, and what I read in 2022—the usual end-of-the-year posts.

Cleaning out my closets: After finding out some of my work pants don’t fit me anymore, I figure it’s worth going through my closet and dressers to find other clothes that don’t fit/things I don’t wear/things I don’t like. I’ll bag everything up and donate what I don’t want.

Updating my journal and new planner for 2023: I’m going to use the same journal I had this year, but I bought a new planner for the new year. I’ll probably have a post in mid-January about how I set both of them up.

Lots of reading and watching TV: This month has been busier than usual for me, so I’m looking forward to having time to read and catch up on my shows.

Celebrating Christmas with Josh early on December 22: We’ll both be with our families over the holiday weekend, so we’ll do our own separate Christmas beforehand. We’re going to make dinner, open gifts, make ice cream sundaes, and have a movie sleepover in the living room on my queen mattress.

Going home for Christmas and New Year’s Eve: I’ll head home for December 24-26. Christmas Eve will be just me and my parents at home. My mom and I make a big charcuterie board, and we’re going to make some cookies for the next day. On Christmas, we’ll go up to my grandparents’ house in the early afternoon, but we’ll open gifts in the morning and after we get back. And watch some football. I’ll go back for December 31-January 1. I don’t have plans for NYE, so I figured I’d go home this year and hang out there. (And yes, I’ll be sleeping on the air mattress again.)

Meeting some friends from work for brunch: Four of us are going to meet up for brunch at a local breakfast place, and it’ll be nice to catch up, especially since one left a few months ago after having a baby.

Going on a holiday light walkthrough with Josh: Since this month has been super busy, Josh and I didn’t have the chance to do all of the fun winter activities we did last year. I did find a new event, a holiday light walkthrough, at a farm in western MA that looks super cute and festive. I’ll definitely do a recap post about it after we go.

Celebrating Josh’s birthday: His birthday is early in the New Year, and we didn’t get to properly celebrate it last year because he had COVID. Fingers crossed no one will be sick this time around, and we can go out for dinner or to a brewery—Josh’s choice—and I can give him his gifts. (This also makes my life difficult, which I’ve told him numerous times, because I have to buy Christmas and birthday gifts at the same time for him.)

As I said in my last blog post, I had three holiday parties in a row, and boy, did it take a toll on me. I enjoyed my time at all of them—the first was a campus-wide holiday lunch, the second was with my direct department (the marketing team), and the third was Josh’s family holiday party—but I was exhausted and all socialized out by Sunday. I took advantage of my work from home days yesterday and today to relax by myself. I’m looking forward to having a mix of alone time and social time over my winter break to end the year.