Ready to take on the new year
Danielle Switalski
Well I’m back from Christmas and ready to take on the new year. After my adventurous and exhausting trip home to Milwaukee for the holidays, I am really glad they’re over. It was wonderful to see all of my family and friends, but you can’t deny that the holidays are just plain stressful.
The best part of my holidays now that I am older is that my family painstakingly tries to hold on to a few memorable traditions, but this year we hit a few bumps in the road.
For as long as I can remember, every Christmas Eve morning my Dad has dragged my brother and I out of bed to go and buy poinsettias for the ladies in my family. I have a small family so we buy six poinsettias total and always go to the same florist, who gives my Dad a nice holiday discount because by this time of year she is just sick of looking at them. This year, my brother was running late and I was in desperate need of sleep so my Dad went to buy them himself.
What usually takes 20 minutes ended up taking an hour and a half as he went to three different florists, all of whom were out of poinsettias. My Dad ended up buying Walgreens’ poinsettias. And as we all know, Walgreens brand things are just as good as brand name products, but there’s just something different about them.
He, however, did manage to keep the tradition alive, dragging me out of bed with barely enough time to brush my teeth and we were off to deliver poinsettias throughout the greater Milwaukee area.
As usual we stole cookies from my grandma, made my sister-in-law get out of the shower so I could use the bathroom and my aunt told me I look like a mess, to which I typically reply, “yes, but a well rested mess.”
This particular tradition has to be one of my favorites. Not only do I get to annoy my brother by singing Christmas songs and spend time with my Dad, but I get free cookies and take a great nap once I get home. This is a tradition I want to keep around for a while, especially the standard Christmas Eve nap.
Christmas was everything I hoped it would be. My mom even shoved my poor little dog in a Mrs. Claus outfit on Christmas Eve. My dog sat on my Grandma’s lap the whole night embarrassed and angry, refusing to sit by my mom until the next day.
Christmas was definitely a success, but to be honest I am ready to ring in the new year in a new town and with new friends. I stopped making New Year’s resolutions years ago when I made the resolution to never make a resolution again because I could never successfully stick to one.
I always seemed to stick with my resolution until the middle of January when I just fall back into my same old routines.
I’ve always tried to keep my resolutions simple and easily accomplished. For example, I tried to cut back on caffeine my first winter break of college. However, when I had to wake up at 8 a.m. for my first shift of work after the holidays, I drank a large latte. They were still selling holiday flavors at my favorite coffee shop and I wanted a gingerbread mocha, while I still had the chance. There went that resolution.
Ironically, not to have resolutions is the only resolution I have ever carried through with.
I do wish you all a happy and healthy 2010 and good luck to you all in achieving your New Year’s goals.
If you have New Year’s Resolutions you’d like to share, please e-mail Danielle at Reporter@vp-mi.com.