Monday, December 22, 2008

The Beauty of Relaxing

(Photo from Flickr)

In this busy season, relaxing (if you can) is absolutely imperative to making through the season with a smile on your face instead of a scowl. And who wants to be a Scrooge this time of year?

So relaxing is just what I did this weekend, and I was perfectly ok with that, especially since the temperatures dipped below zero (with a wind chill of -14) on Sunday. I did manage to go exercise on Saturday, got a bit of writing done, and even made a yummy egg bake. I finished wrapping Christmas presents beside the fireplace, and then watched my favorite Christmas movie, Christmas in Connecticut with Barbara Stanwyck.

Sunday I finished reading Hour of the Cat by Peter Quinn. Even though it's billed as a detective novel set in New York City on the eve of World War II, it is so much more. I plan to review it over at my other blog, The Best of World War II, so if you're interested in it, pop on over there in the upcoming days for a review.

Continuing my World War II theme of the day, I started another book, Jeff Shaara's The Rising Tide, then finished watching the rest of Ken Burns's The War. Wow. It is an incredible series. If you haven't watched it, I highly recommend it. The storytelling is haunting and very powerful.

Also got a bit more writing done on the novel (I love updating my word count bar!). I'm hitting the final 1/4 of the book and I'm trying to figure out how everything is going to fall into place. I think I have it mapped out in my mind, but we'll see how it translates to the page.

I feel ready to enjoy the week ahead! What about you? Are you taking the time to relax during this busy season?

6 comments:

  1. I think it is so tough to relax this time of the year. Your mind is set to go, go, go all of the time and then you have downtime and it's like -- what am I supposed to do with it instead of just sit down with a cup of coffee and a good book and enjoy! Or in my case as well play family game night on the ps2 with my son for quite awhile.

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  2. Congrats on the climbing word count! I'm so relaxed, have only shopped once, and still lots to go. This cold is forcing me to slo-o-o-w down. :)

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  3. Most definitely. The gifts are wrapped, lasagna made & frozen, tree trimmed. Snowed in Friday, more snow yesterday so we settled beneath blankets on the sofa and watched You've Got Mail, one we never tire of. All in all, about 12 inches of snow fell on the two days!

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  4. -14!!! Shiver.

    I love Christmassy movies, and can't wait to settle down and catch a few over the next week or so.

    I shall be relaxing when most of my guests have left after lunch on Christmas Day.

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  5. Anonymous11:59 AM

    I'm so glad I found your blog! I am an aspiring author and lover of vintage things as well. :) Beautiful blog...I'll definitely be back.

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  6. We're snowed in! It's Portland's worst winter storm in 40 years--8 days already, with more snow and ice to come. Hot cocoa, writing Christmas cards, work on the novel...and a lot of gazing out the window in wonder.

    Glad you're meeting the holidays in a lovely frame of mind!

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