Well, hello there! I've missed you!
I'm happy to be back here, tap-tap-tapping away at the keyboard. The holiday break with my extended family was the longest break (actually, the only break) I've taken in blogging since opening up shop here in July 2012. I love my little corner of the internet, but it was good to step away from it for a bit and really, truly focus on the people I love whom I don't see often enough.
Sometimes, you really have to give yourself permission to rest.
I remember reading a thoughtful post called Extremely Important Priorities from Tammy, one-half of the brilliant blogging team at The Great Jollyhoombah (one of my all-time favorite blogs, which is sadly no more), about how we often concoct these long to-do lists for ourselves, chockful of tasks that (if we're really honest about it) we don't actually NEED to do.
Yes, it might have been beneficial for me to keep on posting away through the December holidays, as the third session of my nature photography e-course was starting in January. (It started yesterday and I'm loving my new students already!) But as I watched more and more of my blogging friends sign off until the New Year, I felt a little twinge of envy, and it just felt right to join the holiday parade and hang up the "CLOSED" shingle for a while.
But as I said, I'm happy now to be back. Refreshed. Recharged. Revved up to go again!
That's the whole point of vacations, isn't it?
While I was "on leave", I took LOTS of pictures (no surprise there), especially first thing in the mornings. I haven't quite figured out how to work a camera while wearing gloves, so my outdoor photo shoots would usually end when my fingers and toes went numb. And then I was doubly thankful for a toasty-warm house!
Because I like to give experiences instead of stuff, as a Hanukkah present, I took my two teenage nieces out to dinner and then out for a shopping trip. (Yes, I know, the shopping part negates the non-commercial aspect, but they're teenage girls--I can do only so much green-preaching! And I admit, I did have fun scoping out makeup with them.) I love my nieces to pieces--funny, sweet, and whip-smart girls who have somehow escaped "Sullen Teenager Syndrome."
Our uncle treated us to an afternoon in New York with a performance of Gilbert and Sullivan's "H.M.S. Pinafore" at the NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts. It was good ol' silly fun! I hadn't seen a G & S show since childhood with my dad.
I also saw some very good movies, including "Into the Woods"--twice! That's always been my favorite musical. I saw it on stage in London ages ago (oh my, the set designs were GORGEOUS!), and then I saw the taped Broadway show with Bernadette Peters. I loved the movie (obviously--I saw it twice), and Johnny Depp ROCKED IT as The Wolf (no surprise there), but here's a crazy opinion for you: I didn't think Meryl Streep was as good as Bernadette Peters. (There, I said it!) Don't get me wrong: Meryl Streep is amazing (naturally), but she missed the comedic timing of Peters. Lines that had the audience roaring with laughter in the play with Peters were met with near-silence in the movie theater. (It was a little shocking, I must say!) So if you liked the movie, look up the Broadway version with Bernadette Peters and let me know what you think.
Lastly, I played "Master Chef" with my kids a whole lot during this break, whipping up yummy things like french toast, Chinese broccoli, fresh breads, and cookies. Life is really too short for bad bread, so once you get the hang of making homemade bread from scratch (I promise you, it's not that difficult), you won't ever want to eat the bland stuff in the cellophane bags again.
All in all, 2015 is off to a very yummy start!
How 'bout you? What has kept you happily occupied lately? Let's hear it--I'm all ears! (Email subscribers: Click on the blue title of the post to get to the main site; then you'll see the comments section at the bottom.)
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© 2014 by Joy Sussman/JoyfullyGreen.com. All rights reserved. All photos and text digitally fingerprinted and watermarked. Please do not use any of my photographs without asking me first for permission at [email protected] and then clearly linking back to this site with photo credits. Site licensed by Creative Commons.
