I deliberately left all my wrapping until I thought I was through shopping. Then last night when I was ready to wrap, I arranged everything in little piles and went to work. I started with the bigger items I got for the kids, but I started way too late in the evening to get finished. I didn’t know it at the time, but I thought it would be a whole lot easier.

What I learned from all this is that my body isn’t in very good shape. It isn’t as if I didn’t already know that, but I haven’t really pushed myself to do anything quite as physically demanding as wrapping Christmas presents in a long time. (At least a year, in the case of Christmas presents.) And while I realized that wrapping doesn’t fall very high on the exertion scale, there was a lot of getting up and down, and there was reaching and stretching and lifting and carrying. So it’s not exactly a passive act (although it’s not exactly running a marathon, either).

By the time I went to bed last night, my back was killing me and I was gasping for air. And only the kids’ presents were wrapped. That’s most of what I had to wrap, so there wasn’t so much left for tonight that I was afraid to get started. But I wouldn’t have wanted to try to do as much as I did last night for the second night in a row. I’m ready to admit that my body needs some help getting back into shape. I don’t know that I’m ready to go through with doing something about it, but I suppose that would be the next step.

What better day to get started on a new fitness routine than the Solstice? I have a lot of favorite days, but the best thing about the Winter Solstice isn’t that it’s the shortest day of the year. That’s the worst thing. The best day is that from now on, the days start getting longer again. Before we know it, it won’t be night all the time any more. It’s the awakening dawn of a new beginning!

But I didn’t start a new routine today, of course. New Year’s Day would be another good day to start. I’m a big fan of the Gregorian calendar (much better than the Julian). Or my birthday, which is only three and a half months away. Some time before next summer would be good. Definitely before next winter, when I might have to wrap another pile of presents. I’d hate to have to go through that again in such bad shape as I am now.