Decompression

 All the FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early) forums and blogs that I read warn about "decompression," a stage in which you spend weeks or months recovering from work. People going through this say they felt aimless, exhausted, sometimes physically ill. This seems plausible, particularly if you've been in a toxic job or see your job as part of your identity, but will this really happen to me?

The truth is, I do wonder what changes I'll see in myself post-retirement. Over the course of my career, I was given more management responsibilities and with that came more meetings. My 6-8 hours of daily meetings are a real challenge for this introvert, especially because meetings mean navigating people's emotions, but I've structured my life to adjust. I strictly limit my social activities - one per weekend and one during the week is usually sufficient. I don't expect myself to do much beyond work during the week - cooking dinner and exercise is fine, but I rarely do chores or work on hobbies.

So what will happen when I no longer need to save all that social energy to get through the workday? When I can be at home by myself all day, will I then want to go out a few times a week and make friends? I honestly hope so, but I can't tell until I try it. And in ten more workdays, I get to start finding out.

Holidays

The very best part of the holidays was not being in pain anymore. A few days before Christmas I celebrated that it no longer hurt to smile, which was the result of multiple root canals and so many dentist appointments I'm losing track. That day, I had my first meal in six weeks that wasn't boiled into oblivion and went to bed without waking up to take drugs throughout the night. And life was good again.

The holidays also meant lots of family. I suspect that the family decided to come to me this year since it's my last year in the house. Except for my sister-in-law, who sadly couldn't make it, we had a full house. A house so full, in fact, that my brother got a hotel room.

 The adult coloring book was a hit. My niece found coloring a relaxing activity while on the phone with friends. She also the only one of us who managed to color within the lines.

We had a mainly vegetarian Christmas dinner, now that most of the family is either vegetarian or vegetarian-friendly. My poor father, the lone carnivore. That's probably why he's not really smiling in this photo...

To avoid going Covid-y places, we mainly organized activities at home. Grandparent/grandchild teams each cooked one dinner together. Particularly memorable was the meal produced by my nephew B and my father. B was convinced that they needed to top every meal made during vacation, so they made four courses, including Italian wedding soup, with both meat and vegan meatballs, fresh breadsticks, and homemade ice cream. This meal was so far beyond anything either of them had done before that I was in awe. I am used to being the sole foodie and primary chef in my family, but I think B might give me competition for my title someday.