And so far, so.......samey. Plus, I haven't made any of my usual lose weight/read more/Google less New Year's resolutions though I'm aiming to make a few changes in the year ahead.
One thing I learned in the lead up to the festivities is that the housework doesn't do itself (nor does anyone else do it, nor can you continue to ignore it after a point) and leaving it all for one mahoosive clean-up (alongside all of the shopping and present wrapping and cooking and baking) is one sure way to give you back ache and put you off your Christmas dinner.
So I'm trying to do a bit each day. Thus far it's working (and I find I rather like admiring the results of the vacuuming and duster flicking) though I'm very aware we're only five days in and my enthusiasm does have a tendency to wane rather too quickly (as evidenced by the numerous reminders around the house of many an unfinished project).
Another, slightly more challenging, change I want to make this year is letting go - of stuff (of which there is still far too much here), of past decisions, actions and conversations I can do nothing about. You have no idea how much I replay in my head (even from years and years ago), how much I analyse, how much I think I could have done or said differently. Bonkers, I know. And I'm not at all sure how I'm going to achieve this change. One of my friends thinks I should try hypnosis ("look into my eyes, look into my eyes, the eyes, the eyes, not around the eyes, don't look around my eyes, look into my eyes, you're under"). I think not.
We went for lunch at the art gallery in town today, only to find the cafe has changed ownership. The new menu doesn't impress at all (today's special was corned beef pie) and the quality of what we ended up with (soup, lukewarm at that) was very poor. We had to eat chocolate tree decorations (yes, really) once we were home to get rid of the after taste.
At least the sun was shining on the drive there and I managed to get the first snap this year of my favourite local landmark.