My Favorite Week of the Year

Yes, it's the third day of Christmas, but you didn't expect me to continue counting all the way to Three Kings Day, did you?

To count or not to count?—regardless, this is still my favorite week of the year. With the frenzy of holiday shopping past, the saner sort among us may now sit in peace and enjoy the fruit of our labors. Though we Americans will never quite stack up to our book-loving Icelandic neighbors, nor we Californians-so-done-with-Christmas to the descendants of the Christmastide-loving Irish ancestors nearly one out of every thirteen of us claim, at least this one family (ours) enjoys the peace that comes with the week between Christmas and New Year's Day.

This is the week I enjoy getting everything in order to close out one year and invite in the next. That is a tradition I began years ago, while still working for a local agency. No meetings were scheduled for that quiet week—after all, most folks preferred to take the week off work—and top of my list became pulling out the new calendar and filling in the must-do categories. I'd block out the hours for regular meetings, classes, other group events. Then came notations for repeated tasks—monthly reports due, for instance—and plans for new projects to attempt in the upcoming year.

Things are so different now. I don't even use a paper calendar (though I still prefer color coding my activities); my schedule is kept—and shared—online. I'm just as likely to find myself in a meeting this week as any other time of the year. But I still appreciate the relative hush of the week. Sometimes, we just need to stop rushing and take some time to enjoy what we do have.

Recapping the year is also the best vantage point for looking forward. I'm hoping to tackle some exciting new goals and explore some new possibilities. Now is the best time to map out a reasonable route to successfully completing those plans. In the quiet of year's end, almost anything in that bright future seems possible.

Or is this just that magical afterglow of the holiday season?

Above: "Winter Landscape," oil on panel (before 1634) by Dutch artist Hendrick Avercamp; courtesy Wikipedia; in the public domain.