Merry. Happy. Blah.

If anyone ever tells you that January is their favorite month, either they are lying, or they are a stupid person. Either way, you shouldn't hang out with them.

I think part of January's problem is its place in the calendar next to December. Christmas can make even the most horrible things seem quaint. If it weren't for Christmastime, January wouldn't seem so bleak in comparison.

Anyway, since last week I was just reviewing the entire year, I thought I'd reflect on some of the merrier times of the last two weeks before describing my boring January.

On Christmas Eve, my mom's family all came over. Her family has gotten so large that it was very crowded. After everyone left, it was a very peaceful Christmas Eve. I was delighted that it was our fourth snowy Christmas in a row.

It was great to have my nephews here on Christmas morning. That hadn't happened since 2009, before the youngest was even born. They had fun opening presents. For me, I care less about the presents these days (even though, as I previously said, the joy of Christmas ultimately stems from the nostalgia of getting presents). I got bluetooth earbuds, a car first-aid kit, a headlamp, and a knock-off NES system. You remember a while back when Nintendo made a little NES device that had lots of games preloaded on it? Well, my sister got me an Asian fake version. They are actually pretty accurate with the Super Mario and Super Mario 3 games, but they had to take "Mario" out of the title. They have a game called "Mario 6" which is just a Tiny Toons game with Mario as the main character. I looked through all the games preloaded and found a Christmas one, which of course I had to play that night. It was one of the most basic games imaginable. I rarely play video games, but it's fun to have random gadgets and devices around, even if I don't use them much.

One of the last uses of this TV.

I wanted to have a turkey dinner for Christmas. I wanted to cook a turkey, since I personally haven't before; and since Thanksgiving's turkey wasn't cooked to my liking, I felt kind of cheated out of turkey. Well, my mom was cutting up the celery to go in the stuffing, and she cut her finger fairly badly--not bad enough for stitches or anything, but not good. I don't do well with blood and pain and medical emergencies, so I began to feel woozy just thinking about it. As my nephews came out and said "Grandma's thumb lost so much blood it's flat," it just made it worse. I think the fact that I was really tired was part of why I got so woozy.

But that wasn't the end of it. After my mom recovered, she told me I needed to take out the turkey neck and giblets. And after my tiredness, and my experience with my mom's thumb, I just couldn't do it. I felt too woozy and disgusted. I'll have to try again a different year when I haven't just seen blood. Hats off to all the doctors and nurses out there, because I couldn't do it.

I still had to go caroling, but no one else wanted to, so I walked around the block singing quietly to myself.

It really was a lovely Christmas, probably the best I can remember.

On Boxing Day, I tried to go sledding with my nephews again, but the snow had become so hard and icy that it was no longer ideal. I went sledding down just on my coat, not even with a sled, and I was going fast enough that I couldn't stop myself. Then I had to climb back up the hill, and I was on my hands and knees doing so. At one point, Nathaniel (7) was coming up, and he slipped and slid all the way back down again.

My three nephews got little drones for Christmas. We went to a mall to look at the Lego Store, while I went to get 2018 calendars. Afterwards, we went to a park's parking lot so they could play with their drones, which were controlled by a phone app. Nathaniel's drone had a glitch where it flew out of range of the phone--and since the app could no longer control it, it kept going up and up and up. It went out of sight, and we never found it. Nathaniel was sad/mad and was plotting to get everyone to write one-star reviews of the company.

My cat likes my calendars. My dad, not so much.

 My parents decided to get an enormous TV for our exercise room. So enormous that I'm embarrassed to tell you the size. The giant box was a marvel to behold, but we had to cut it to get the TV out.

I had a few New Year's events to go to. My stake rented the Bountiful rec center the Friday before New Year's, and I went down the water slide a few dozen times. On New Year's Eve Eve, I saw BYU Vocal Point downtown at the Tabernacle.

As for New Year's Eve itself, it was pretty boring. No one invited me to their party (jerks!), and my family just put together a (difficult) puzzle. I lit some fireworks, but my family was generally somewhat apathetic, though they made it to midnight. The only thing on my New Year's bucket list that I didn't do was to use one of those noisemakers that's a flat piece on the end of a stick, and you spin it around and it makes clicky noises. I couldn't find one. (I do not have holiday bucket lists for 2018.)

On New Year's Day, we had my mom's family's traditional out-to-eat celebration of their first date six decades ago.

And then, all the holidays were over, and January returned with all its nastiness. My hands literally have cracks all over them because of winter dry skin.

Not only have the holidays ended, so has the life I knew. December 29, 2017, was my last day working for the Church History Department. I had been there since March 2014, and I had squeezed every last drop out of my contract.

So I have to spend these dreary January days looking for jobs and otherwise doing whatever I want, which isn't as fun or glamorous as it sounds. The trails are too snowy, so I've been running on the streets when the air has been clean enough. But I ran the eleven miles to and from the temple one day, and then I was too exhausted to run more than six miles the rest of the week.

One consolation is that since Christmastime, my kitty, Jimmy, has warmed up to me some more. I think I've trained him not to sit on my laptop anymore--it's hilarious and adorable when he does so, but also annoying. He sleeps on my bed while I'm doing stuff on my computer. But when he sees a speck of light reflected from my watch or computer screen, he goes after it.

When he sits on my computer, he opens new tabs and types things.

I love how much he sleeps on my bed. I do not love how much he sheds on my bed.

Anyway, this week looks to be more of the same, with job searching and hopefully reviewing more Valentine's candy for The Impulsive Buy. Next week I'll be going to California.

Because heaven knows Utah has nothing to offer me during January.