Countdowns, Christmas & Closure…

I’ve found it difficult to write this month especially these last two weeks, when I’ve managed just two posts. It’s not that I don’t have ideas, but I’ve just not pushed myself to sit and write them down, develop them into stories, sometimes out of lethargy but mostly coz I’ve been busy. I don’t enjoy this (hopefully) temporary separation from words, but the more I fight it, the more elusive they become. So, for a change I’ve decided to be mature and do the sensible thing…enjoy the break, take every day as it comes and hope for the best! What do you think? Sounds like a plan? This post took me a while to write…too many distractions, too much happening, too many excuses! But I needed to get it written before we left for our short holiday and am quite happy I finally got it done 🙂 Feel better for it! So here goes…

It’s that time of year again – Countdown time!

Countdowns for everything have begun…days to X’mas, days to the New Year, days to my vacation – just 2 more 🙂 We all get carried away with numbers, in this year-end induced frenzy of making new beginnings …we count days, calories, gifts, regrets, successes, pounds lost and pounds gained, friendships we’ve managed to hold on to, those we’ve had to let go, how many times we cried, how often we laughed, how many vacations we took, how many books we read, how many we didn’t. and all the other stuff with which we quantify our lives in an attempt to make sense of it all and in all probability make more short-lived, often futile resolutions! You know it’s true! It’s almost like the numbers we come up with define who we are or should I say, who we were during the year gone by. Restricting really…especially when the sum is so much more than parts of the whole. I’m not sure that last line makes any kind of sense, but it sure looks good on paper – important! Blame it on the fact that I’m living very much in the Wizard world at the moment with Potter and the rest 😛 and so perhaps as Rowling likes to say, my brains are ‘addled’ 😛

The last couple of years I’ve tried to steer clear of both – numbers and resolutions. It’s not easy though, especially when thinking about trying to lose weight! (the emphasis here is on ‘thinking’ as opposed to ‘trying’ :P) I’ve been telling myself that I should join the gym only when I’m ready to make a permanent lifestyle change and when I care less about how much weight I lose and more about the importance of getting fitter and healthier. Let’s just say I haven’t joined a gym, lost much weight nor increased my level of fitness in a while. But I haven’t given up yet! Why should I, when I have 2011 around the corner and the opportunity to make yet another new beginning if I should so desire?

New beginnings brings me to closure. Obvious? Rather! In a year-end post I did last year, I stressed the discovery of a good ending. I know one cannot always hope for one of those neatly parceled endings where everything works out to our satisfaction, and that’s not what I mean. But I do hope that I am able, as the year draws to a close, to let go of stuff that needs letting go, move on from disappointments, celebrate successes and clear my mind of a year’s worth of detritus, so I feel renewed and refreshed. Prepared, in a word for the New Year, and whatever it may hold. I may not like numbers but I do like the feeling of getting Life under control (well what little is under our control anyway!), moving on and looking forward in anticipation. In this, I’m true to my inner Sagittarian. Change excites me. I love the thought of new challenges and hopefully new solutions. Sameness (in anything), initially just bores and then annoys me to the point of real rage sometimes! (Ask Mom!) So here’s hoping for a New Year of novelty and originality, of balance and of course much fun & happiness 🙂

And so on to the last ‘C’ – Christmas! I love Christmas for the most obvious reasons – cool weather, beautifully decorated trees, caroling, and a general sense of well-being and happiness all around 🙂 Ever since I was a kid in Japan, we’ve always put up a Christmas tree, actually make that two! One green and one white 🙂 I love the decorating process and when the lights on the tree are finally switched on, there’s just a little bit of magic in the air, don’t you think? I do 🙂 Love Santa Claus too! Oh come on – you know you do too! What’s not to like, he brings gifts doesn’t he 😉 This year was Ishaan’s first Christmas in school 🙂 He showed no interest at all while I put up our tree at home and I don’t know whether he showed any in school! Somehow, I doubt it. He had his school Christmas party today and came back with a snowman tattoo on his hand and a mini-basketball game as a gift 🙂 He wasn’t too interested in either! But he does sing Jingle Bells with me 🙂

On Sunday, we are off to Mahabaleshwar, a hill station, an 8 hour drive away. We’ll meet up with family and I’m looking forward to the change in scene! I need it 🙂 You will of course hear all about it when I’m back! And yet, this month, I’ve found it hard to write – there’s a sense of ennui that’s been hard to shake off, surprising given that this has been a remarkably busy month. Oh well…it’s nothing a change in scene can’t take care of! I hope 😛

I’ll leave you with a collage of our tree & a few of it’s ornaments 🙂

And now, I need to get back to Hogwarts and The Half-Blood prince 🙂

Have a Fabulous Weekend People!! Good luck with that last-minute Christmas shopping  😉