Unplugged New Year

You may have noticed that I haven't blogged for the past few days.

I've also been out of cellphone range. I've avoided social media. I've even limited my time checking my email.

I blame a lot of that on the fact that Christopher and I (and one of Christopher's sisters, and the pup) went to my parents' for the long New Year's weekend. But I can't blame it all on that, since they do have a computer and I was able to at least pull up my email once or twice when my nephew wasn't on it playing some game from the Disney channel.

But, mainly, I was really enjoying the not-overly-connected-via-electronics time.

Instead, since for much of the time we were there there were 12 people in the house, we spent time connecting non-electronically.

We put together a 1,000-piece puzzle between Saturday and Monday. We played cards. We walked the dog around the block I grew up on. We did a driving tour of the town, visited the museum, and threw some snow at each other.

We painted and baked cookies, and navigated the treacherous paths of cooking meals for 12 when there are just a few food issues involved (an allergy to onions, an allergy to mushrooms, two aversions to olives, and an allergy to dairy, just for starters).

We also talked, laughed, and got stressed when it was time to go - on the surface because we were packing and having to travel, but we all know it's because we don't have the entirely family together as often as we might like.

I'm gradually getting back into the technologically connected age. (Obviously.) And I'm sure that by the time I get to work, tomorrow, I'll be back into the 21st century.

But there was something really nice about the most-watched screen over the weekend being the one in front of the fireplace. And it was certainly not a bad way to wrap up the old year and start a new one.

Cheers to it!