Breathe.......

Sometimes when you are a business owner things can creep up on you.  We seemed to lose a bit of control over our business last year at this time and swore we would never allow that to happen again, so this year Mom and I are really trying to enjoy ourselves more, enjoy the holidays and breathe.  
Today I had to bring Baxter, my dog, to Albany for his bi-annual eye check up.  Three years ago he had cataract surgery and it is a commitment I promised the vet I would keep up with, so twice a year I drive the 3 hours down for a 10 minute checkup.  He is well worth it.

So, I said to Mom, "feel like taking a ride and doing a little Christmas shopping?"  Mom never says no.....seriously, she's game for anything and was practically waiting in the car.  
We use to take one day a week and go on adventures, shopping or antiquing, but things got really busy and then Covid hit so we really don't get out much anymore, but it really was nice to take the drive today.

We needed to bring Baxter to Latham, NY so we found Stuyvesant shopping plaza, thanks to Melissa, not far away and managed to spend the 3 hours there, eating, shopping, browsing, breathing.  It  felt good to breathe....and I don't mean breathe in the traditional sense.  It felt good to see people milling around, Christmas shopping, smiling under their responsibly placed masks, laughing, eating.

We visited an actual bookstore....not Barnes and Noble, but a little book store.  One of my favorite movies is "You've got mail."  It centers around a small little bookstore that is soon overtaken by a big box store.  This little store we visited today was quaint and....little.....it was perfect.  

We visited Penzy's spices....I had head great things about it and it lived up to the hype.  We walked around, looking in the store windows, pretty linens, shoes and clothing and breathed.  

We noticed the Christmas ornaments and breathed.  

                                                                    Did I mention that we ate?

I feel like I say this every year but I feel that it must be repeated.  Sometimes I think that as women, moms or grandma's, we put such expectations on ourselves for the perfect holidays that we fail to actually enjoy what goes into it.  We all need to learn to breathe more.....especially after this last couple of years.  

So, we shopped, ate, breathed and tended to Baxter and then we drove home where we are now happily keeping our hands busy...Mom with her hooking and me with my stitching.  It is back to business tomorrow but with a sense of renewal.  It was good to breathe.
 

Until next time........