The last swimming day of 2015 turned out to be New Year’s Eve. My brother and his family were here for my father’s 75th birthday party and as far as they were concerned, 80 degree weather is acceptable swimming weather. They were right. I swam, too, and it was reasonably nice. A little on the cold side, but refreshing cold, not horrifying.

I thought about trying to make today be the first swimming day of 2016 — I could have, it was again nice enough — but I didn’t. Swimming fit right in to yesterday’s fun chaos of kids and barking dogs and adults having conversations around interruptions, but today was the solitary quiet of needles dropping off the Christmas tree as I pulled off the ornaments. Not swimming weather mentally, even though it was just as warm as it was yesterday.

Yesterday I made fruit salad — cantaloupe, watermelon, pineapple, strawberries & blueberries — and a maple cream cheese French toast casserole for a family brunch. On Christmas Eve, I did appetizers and desserts for family and friends. With Thanksgiving, that makes three occasions recently that I’ve cooked for ten plus. My conclusion is that I don’t mind the cooking, but the clean-up is seriously tedious. I used paper plates on Christmas Eve and even with paper plates, lots of cooking and eating makes lots of mess. But it was nice to have people here, of course.

Hmm, everything I write today is coming out a little blue. I guess I’m not quite ready to barrel ahead into the new year — I apparently need a little longer to recover from the holidays. But I wish you all a Happy New Year! May 2016 bring adventures and joy!