I didn’t do Black Friday or Cyber Monday. In fact, I didn’t do Thanksgiving. It’s been a long, strange year indeed. Like most years, I’m pretty much skipping the holidays. The solitude and lack of holiday pressure is quite calming. I biked several neighborhoods on Thanksgiving, hearing the sounds of nature mixed with families outside playing Frisbee or football. The gorgeous late November days were exquisite to me as I climbed the subdivisions’ hills. I even smelled turkey frying outside along with yams and pumpkin pie. I couldn’t make that up.
I didn’t totally miss out. I had a catered Thanksgiving meal at work earlier in the day. Later on, it felt good to work it off through a bike ride. I got on the bike the next day and enjoyed watching so many folks in subdivisions working hard at putting up holiday decorations. There was hardly a chill on those days. The skies were perfect and there was much more breathable air than those hot summer days which we tend to forget in late November.
When a week like November 19th comes along, a huge pause button is put on my schedule. My little one is in both cheerleading and gymnastics, so it’s odd when there’s a week where none of this activity happens. My daughter was down at the beach visiting with her mother who drove her down to the Florida Panhandle to be with her grandparents, their neighbors and friends. No, I never had any family here. Everyone in my clan is in Northeast Ohio.
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I went on with my own regular schedule. Indeed I enjoy the quiet, but after a bit, I long for normalcy. Somehow to me, the full week off of Thanksgiving breaks up the month of November to make it seem longer than usual. So, we head into December.
I look forward to handling all the holidays just like Thanksgiving. I’ll stay away from the malls, perhaps attend a party or two and coast all the way through New Year’s Eve. I’m actually hoping I’ll get out on that evening. If I don’t, I’ll go biking on New Year’s Day, probably witnessing folks taking down decorations and putting out cans and bottles to recycle.