There are joys in this in-between period

This period of the holiday season is a little like being middle age plus.

The preparations and excitement of Christmas have usually passed. Leftovers are the main menu of your meals, and you are worrying if you went too far with expenses, but it's too late to do anything about it now. So you just bask in what you hoped was the appreciation each person felt for your gifts.

There is still another big event coming that emphasizes newness and starting over. It is one that we know is coming but we are never sure we really got everything ready for it. There may be a hidden fear that there is an unpaid tax waiting, or a bill that needed to be settled within the year.

So, we who have passed the middle age mark have many memories of exciting times and even participate in some of them now, as we did with Christmas.

But after celebrating so many things, they all seem to get rolled together in our memory with only a few distinct instances to remember. Christmases are a blur of trees, gifts, relatives, food, wrappings, messes, hugs and kisses. It is a very pleasant blur, but there is a bit of comfort in the fact that it has passed and we can just add it to our book of memories where it will soon get distilled with all the other Christmas memories.

The leftovers continue the feelings, but lack a little of the tang of the earlier happenings. They become more of a comfort food; something that gives you a warm and cozy feeling, but doesn't remind you for hours afterward that you took too much. Sensible portions of leftovers are like our lives at this stage.

We appreciate things in small portions, and especially like those that have been tried and enjoyed before. We can savor a new experience with relish, but would just as soon that they come spaced apart somewhat.

The concern we have after the holidays that we may have pushed our strength or budget a little is like our lives now. Maybe we shouldn't have invested in this project, or added that duty to our already busy lives. But it is now in the past and we can only hope that our loved ones profited from our giving.

That leaves the thoughts of the still coming celebration. This is a time for plans about how we can make changes for the better. Resolutions to improve our way of life lack appeal. We've been there, done that, and probably don't have a T-shirt that shows that we did. But we hope that we still have time left to make a few changes.

Like the ending of a fiscal year, we want everything to balance out on the books, and we know that Uncle Sam will be watching if we don't get it straight. That reminds us of other accountings that may be in the making with more than the IRS concerned about our balances.

We may not even know about some deficit in our lives, and we also probably don't know of some assets that have been attributed to us because of something we have done. We can only hope that in the long run, when the New Year and new beginnings come, that we will be able to relish the occasion and be able to say Happy New Year and still look forward to the future.

After reading this, I realize why so many people celebrate the New Year with alcohol.

I almost wish I did.