The Pause Between Years

I usually post about Oregon history during the last week of the month, but this week I am feeling the pause between years. The week between Christmas and New Year’s has always felt to me like time to heave a big sigh and relax, to sit in the moment suspended between past and future. Most years, I’ve been able to take that pause.

When I was a child, it seemed like the week between the holidays stretched so long. New toys to play with. Nowhere to go. No homework . . . until the weekend before school would start again, when I rushed to get all my assignments done. That weekend sped by, and all too quickly classes resumed on Monday. But before that came a long stretch of open days to spend with family, while I ate sweets and read new books.

When I was working, I usually took some vacation days during the week between Christmas and New Year’s. My own children had the same attitude I’d had as a child—they stretched out the week doing as little as possible. I tried to join them. Sometimes we traveled to visit my parents for Christmas, and we had to face the teeming crowds of fellow travelers at the airport. But except on travel days, I could bask in the familiarity of my parents’ routines and I let them spoil my children.

Other years when I was working, we went to my in-laws’ house. They lived nearby, and we only stayed a couple of days. Sometimes, my husband and I left our kids with them, and we relished our the child-free freedom for the week. I went to work, but I almost enjoyed the slower pace of the office that week. Few deadlines. An opportunity to catch up on projects. Maybe even get a head start on the new year.

This year, my son and daughter-in-law are visiting. They have some work tasks to complete this week, and as I am typing up this post they are both on their laptops. Despite some obligations even in my retirement, I am trying to stay true to the relative relaxation of this week. I have put my novel on the back burner for a few days (though unfortunately, it has been on the back burner far too frequently this year). I only have one meeting scheduled this week, and my husband has only one doctor’s appointment. For the most part, I can focus on family rather than on other commitments.

And so, I decided not to dig for a historical topic this week, but to write instead about something that came more easily. And what comes easily is this pause between years, this quiet week of waiting. I will put behind me the stresses of the past year and postpone my anticipation of all the good and all the disagreeable that will surely come in 2023.

How are you spending this last week of 2022?