Monday, February 06, 2017

Bleak Week... #thankyoujackbergstedt

A new holiday has been invented, and it is amazing. In all honesty, it was invented about 40 years ago, by one #JackBergstedt. (I faithfully promised his daughter, my dear friend Jane, that I would invent a new hashtag to give him credit for this amazing creation. Because you know, this is going to become a thing, like on pinterest or something, and Jack needs the credit!) His idea was to have an entire week during the month of January devoted to nothing but coping with the bleak and dreary weather. He named it Bleak Week and their family has been celebrating for years. At their house they do things like pick a stay-in-your-pajamas day, and eat out for dinner as much as needed, have a favorite-movie watching day - anything to just sort of pamper yourself after the let down of Christmas and the cold and empty start of a new year. (Can you tell how I really feel about January?)

I told a few people in my neighborhood about this idea and when I did, they got this light in their eye as the greatness of the idea dawned on them. It's pretty fantastic, right? I was thinking along the lines of basically cocooning myself as much as possible for the week; watching movies, enjoying pajamas, stuffing my face, taking baths...that kind of thing. But my husband and some friends had totally different ideas.

For starters, my friend Becca gave me a gift on Christmas Eve - it was a beautiful banner made of little triangular flags of the most brilliant and delightful colors. It was for hanging up in our house after the Christmas deco all came down to bring a little color and cheer. It was so darling. I loved it so much that I made a second one (using my friend's fabric) to give to Jane and her dad for their bleak week. That was fun. Also, people started talking about holding a dance. At first I was confused - how was I supposed to dance when I was in pajamas, wrapped in a giant blanket and curled up in bed? But when I was assigned to make the playlist I got into the spirit of things.

We held the dance on inauguration day, which I felt was fitting. That was a bleak day for me. Becca went ALL OUT decorating the church and we invited a few families to come and dance. Many people came. Some danced, some did not, and some, like myself, shed all fears of self conscious restraint and just danced our guts out. Once again I rather injured my neck. Must remember that head-banging should be left out of future dance routines. OUCH......

My dad came and did a little jiving with Emma and with myself. I'm a terrible partners dancer. Just rotten. Sorry dad!















What a fun evening. We need to have another dance in the summer time. I'm aging, I'm chubby, and yet I can not stop myself from dancing when the tunes start rolling.

 We had a little trouble drumming up the energy for other big events that week, although we did manage to sneak out to a movie together - we saw Sing, an animated kids' show with tons of fun music in it. I have been surprised how much the kids have listened to the music and talked about wanting to see the show again.

For myself, I did find a way to do a little cocooning - I spent as much time as I could with Jane Austen movies and I took a few baths in the evenings. Good week. Which is surprising to say about a week that takes place in January. Looking forward to celebrating even harder (and also softer) next year - #thankyoujackbergstedt!



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