Xmas to New year - limbo time?

My son and family go home tomorrow. After taking the rest of Monday off the rest of the week will be spent working my way around the house taking decorations down, giving the house a good clean and doing some sorting. We go away next week.

So this week is hard work, nothing relaxed or limbo like about it at all.

It never been limbo lik. When the children were small I worked between Christmas and New Year. DH usually had the full 10 days off, I worked, as I said at this time, but took leave once he went back to work, so that I could home until the children went back to school.

welbeck

it ain't necessarily so...
that OP comment was made before the taking leave announcement.
seems a bit strange to accuse someone of being pedantic when posting on pedants' corner.

But stranger still to post about the Twixmas period on Pedants’ Corner. 🤔🤔

I like these days. I can excuse myself watching the old films on tv in the afternoons. The house is back to normal as I took the decorations down this morning. All hoovering done. Some good library books to get through. DH snoozing on the sofa. Family all ok and happy. Lots to be grateful for I’m thinking. Spring around the corner too.

it ain't necessarily so...
that OP comment was made before the taking leave announcement.
seems a bit strange to accuse someone of being pedantic when posting on pedants' corner.

Margs

My God grandtanteJ56: that WAS without doubt pedantic on an Olympic scale!

Any suitable biblical quotes to go with it?

Glad you are still with us after all @ Margs

Hope you have had second thoughts and a (short) rest has been as good as a change?

I have always thoroughly enjoyed twixmas

Our business is closed, as are the schools, so when the children were at home it was wonderful, no demands on my time.

When parents were alive and living abroad we always flew out to see them the day after Boxing Day (if they hadn’t joined us for Christmas).

AussieGran59

I know what you mean. It’s always a strange time of year. Everyone seems to be away on January holidays here and the streets are deserted.

I just wish the streets had been a bit more deserted when we took young Gdcs into London two days running last week! ! I have honestly never seen so many people crammed on to pavements - anywhere near the London Eye we had to more or less force our way through.
Almost as bad at South Ken near the museums - V&A, Nat Hist and Science. Absolute hordes.

A taxi driver who took us to the National Maritime museum at Greenwich - it was marginally less manic there - told us that there were a LOT of tourists at the mo. Which has to be good news for many businesses, anyway.

@Grandtante65, I can’t be bothered to quote it all, but my huge fat Oxford dictionary gives two definitions for ‘limbo’ - the Christian belief one, and the more generally used sense, as in the OP by Margs.

Don't like it much. Short, dark days, grey and rainy. When I was working I always volunteered to be on duty this week but now I'm retired I don't have that option. Took down the deccies yesterday and tidied away. Finished the novel I was writing. Looking forward to the spring. Won't be too long now.

In the week between Christmas and New Year I firstly feel relief that all the expectations are over, then I process the bits which disappointed me and come to terms with it all. [Adult GS not sending a card or present - packet of biscuits would have been lovely! And no thanks for the cash gift I sent him. Half bro and half sis not sending cards for the 1st time in 50+ years... there's more..].

Then I go on to sort out cupboards and drawers and donate to charity shops. Clear the house and the old out ready for a fresh start. I generally feel relaxed as life seems to take a breath and come down a gear.

I treat myself and change things a bit, buying bits for the home, and I plan changes to the garden. I look forward to new interests, plan new places to visit and look forward to seeing the snowdrops, primroses, daffodils and crocus's, buds....

The nights will now get lighter, which cheers me up and spring comes ever nearer. It's a time of taking stock and renewal for me. With some good food still left to eat and a glass of Baileys in the evenings I'm pretty content.

I normally take the 30th off for eldest GD birthday but they are in Spain on hols this year.. so I've worked 28th and 29th and 30tg this year....I've still managed to take the tree and decs down..and had a girls party night in at my friends house.....my partner also worked 2 of the days.....it seems like a waste of annual leave when it's raining and dark and I haven't got any major plans

When I was working abroad a lot I loved this time, I would travel home a few days before Christmas then stay at home until after New Year.

I love Twixmas! Busy with family but lots of pyjama time too. I never plan ahead this week - just simply go with the flow.

Today. Visitor’s beds change and bathrooms clean. Cards and decorations down. Tree put away. Hoovered and all is good. DH just in kitchen getting supper sorted. Left over ham, egg and chips. What more could you want. 58 wedding anniversary tomorrow. !!!!

I quite enjoy this week. The decorations are still up and lights and candles on, nothing major is happening so we can doss and do nothing if we want to or make something happen. Doing a bit of cleaning and washing today, for the first time in a week. Not even bothering to cook a big meal as we'll have a big roast again tomorrow. Went out for coffee this morning, wandered around a few shops, now watching some old films on TV and learning another crochet stitch. It's possible I might have to exert myself shortly to make some coffee.
😄

My birthday falls in the middle of tumbleweed time,this year was my 70th,and I still say it is a horrible time of year to have a birthday.

I enjoy it , everyone has gone home, no pressure to visit anyone and no big meals to prepare until tomorrow.

I can sit, watch the Telly or read a book with the Christmas tree shining brightly in the corner.

Of course I’m just biding my time and saving my energy for Monday when it all gets packed up, I have the house to clean, laundry to do and shopping to refill the cupboards.

bit = big

I hate this time of year because if anything goes wrong its so bloody difficult to get trades. And if you have an emergency they charge a fortune.

My heating system sprung a leak just before christmas. Plumber attended and removed part of the (underneath) kitchen ceiling but was unable to get to it from that side. He is going to have to remove the bath and possibly part of the bathroom floor to get at it. Its a bit 2 day/2 person job which he cant do til next wednesday. Ok not an emergency but its pretty depressing to have a steady drip and a bucket on the floor just in the food preparation/cooker/sink area. Gpood job I was not planning to host!

Not quite the same since we retired, but always loved this week - dh always had to take it as leave, so even when I was working PT a lovely chilled time, nice walks, eating up leftovers, no shopping, minimal cooking, lots of Christmas chocolates still to eat - what’s not to like?
And all the cheerful decorations still up - I’ve never been one of those who ‘can’t wait to take them down and have a good clean!’
Maybe that could go on my gravestone - ‘She was never dying to have a good clean!’

I have heard this period, around the winter solstice, (December 21st ?) referred to as Halcyon Days, a period of calm weather lasting about fourteen days.
Doesn't seem applicable at the moment, weather wise anyway.

a ver= ever
nut= but

“Go to this people and say,
“You will be a ver hearing but never understanding;
you will be ever seeing nut never perceiving.”
Acts 28 v26

My God grandtanteJ56: that WAS without doubt pedantic on an Olympic scale!

Any suitable biblical quotes to go with it?

Shoshana

I love this time too! It feels like a bit of an escape before life gets back to normal again.

Just what I think too😆
Slobbing around with no pressures.