And...here it is, 3 weeks after my last post. The hibernating time got crunched all of a sudden with Things To Get Done, such as Yule and Christmas, and all of a sudden HERE THEY WERE and I WAS NOT READY.

Actually, I was more ready than I've been in past years. I wanted to get all my gifting done before Thanksgiving so that I could Enjoy The Season, but honestly? I had much done by then, though disorganized, and I was Enjoying The Season the whole time. I didn't lay around watching movies, but I did relax a lot more in my head, which is where it counts, anyway.

I had a huge Hibernating Mentality. And I still do, though now that I am only working 10-1/2 hours a week for now, I will be hopefully able to get all my appointments out of the way, and Hibernate a lot more. I love this season. LOVE.IT. I'd give anything if the powers that be would put Daylight Savings Time back to where it used to be, instead of expanding it to nearly 9 months of the whole dang year, but that's another rant for another time...heavy sigh.
Y'know, I think Mom Nature does a fine job all by Herself, making it darker in Winter and lighter in Summer...but that's me. Being the humans that we are, it's just our nature to flub it up more, I guess.

So...in-between times...New Year's...I don't do parties, and I don't stay up late, and I don't do resolutions, but I do have traditions that carry me through this liminal time like I do for other In Between times.

What I did this year is to leave bright shiny pennies on my two doorsteps, for prosperity, and I let the old year out one door, and the new year in the other door, right at midnight.

On New Year's Day I cooked pork (for living high on the hog) and collards (for green money) and black eyed peas (for coin money), and cornbread (for gold), and I chose my Word For The Year, like my Pagan Mama group has been doing for ages.
My Word this year is Consider. As in, consider that others have opinions and ideas that are not mine. That I am not the boss of them. That they have their own higher power and it is not me. That much as I would like to think I do sometimes, I do not rule the world.

Happy New Year! What are your traditions?