So, Christmas week has come and gone and I am on to New Years week tasks. My new pocket pc reminds me that I have policy revisions to complete and an SCA yearend report to finish and seven other "high priority tasks" but I think I will take a few minutes to update here first.

As I wrote before, Christmas was good. Especially good considering that I had been so distracted and busy going into it. I actually had some quiet time and some family time which are essential to my spirit but hard to fit into a hectic life. As we prepared the house and bustled through the holiday on the horizon was the gift of a weekend of woman time planned for (as usual) many weeks in advance.

Most of my friends know somewhere in the back of their minds that I plan my life way in advance because I have to book time for everything. For my spontaneous friends it is more than a little challenging but then generally, they either are not married, have no kids or do not work full time. Adding or subtracting just one or two of the above makes a dramatic difference to my uncommitted time. So for years my solution has been to email or call as I can and try to schedule time to see folks either at an SCA event or inbetween. Try as I might, there are neither enough hours in the day or weekends in a year. (Thanks Manly and Shannon for your patience this fall).

But this weekend, I was able to schedule a trip to Raleigh to get some Nia Time. I love Nia time as it feeds my soul. Does not matter if we plan to "do" things or just hang out...we always laugh, talk and just...live. By the end of the weekend I am always a bit sleep deprived (we may only be interesting to each other but that is perfectly okay with us) but I can feel my shoulders relaxed and my blood pressure lowered. No expectations, no pressures...just connection.

Nia and I realized a long time ago that I am a "CAT" person. In other words, I do not enjoy particularly being with packs of people or relaxing with too much "stuff to do." When I first came up we would try to pack the weekend full of seeing everyone and doing everything to the point of my feeling overcommitted and shopworn. Now, we carefully examine what we want to do and whether there is enough "energy" to lightly pencil in this or that on what is too fluid to even be considered an agenda.

This weekend, we enjoyed a lovely meal at Crazy Fire with Benefse and Alejandro (have not been out with them for toooo many months) before we spent the evening just chit-chatting about life. Did not manage to crack World Peace but then....before we knew it we were up past one and needed to go to bed.

Saturday was full, in fact much more full than most of our weekends. Perhaps as we had both had some time off from work we had energy to burn as we ran around getting car work done, hair cuts and Christmas clearance shopping. We finished the day in a bath shop sampling this and that for an evening of spa treatments and facials.

Yep, it was prime girl time.

So after silver trees and blue balls, haircuts, facials and silliness we played Rails with Lucia. Nia was particularly skilled and beat us both times (much to my growing competitive chagrin!). More late night chats ended our Saturday.

Sunday we awoke as we cared to and went out for an errand and a lovely lunch. It dawned on me a couple of times over the weekend that I wondered if we looked like sisters or even a couple as we had that easy air of relaxation and humor you really only demonstrate with those who have a piece of your heart.

I have always had the luxury of woman time which is something I know I need and I am blessed my husband and daughters recognize how important it is to me. I can feel myself yearning to get on the road even as I feel the poignant tug on my heart of goodbye kisses and hugs. By the end of the weekend though, my heart begins to signal that the yearning is for home...for Les's quiet presence, the sparkling vitality of the girls and the all too infrequent affability of our cat.

Nia recognizes that transition and despite our wanting to try to fit in one more conversation about everything and nothing, she realizes I need to be home.

So, my favorite gift this season is knowing that there are people in my life who know me well enough to rejuvenate my spirit so that I take that new found energy and reinvest it in all those commitments.

Thank you.