DARE TO DREAM | Manifesting Journal

Christmas is coming

It's quiet around here. In work everything is going smootly and I have free time in my hands. I decide to go on a little trip pampering, photography, and shopping to north. I leave well before the massive Christmas rush. I pack the car trunk in the garage, book a hotel for the night between Tuesday and Wednesday, and start driving towards north at 8 AM on Tuesday morning. Traveling alone allows me to follow my own schedule. I stop halfway to charge the car and have a small lunch on the road. When I arrive, I leave my car charges overnight. I did bring a small bottle of de-icer spray for the car windows, as I hate scraping them, which almost always gets my coat dirty. Since it's already a bit frosty outside, II take my overnight gear to the hotel and because the shopping center is in the same building, I leave my coat there as well. Then, I head out for a tour of the center. Even though it's the pre-Christmas season, I can enjoy the peace and quiet since there are hardly any people around during the weekdays. A salesperson tells me that Fridays and Saturdays before Christmas are extremely busy, so my timing is perfect. I pick up some small items for home decor, kitchen updates including dishes and storage, and Christmas gifts for my brothers' kids. I also buy a few Christmas decorations, a large marker and colored pencil set, a light table for tracing, and new pants, workout clothes and couple of new sneakers and new insoles for them. I order a light evening snack to my room, then take a shower and watch HBO Max before going to sleep.

After breakfast, I do one more round in the shopping center, then visit the restroom and buy one energy dring for the journey, heading south via local amusement park. I have previously arranged with the park to access the area for photography as part of my photography studies. Around noon, I stop at there to photograph the deserted, all quiet and lightly snow-covered amusement park. A staff member meets me and keeps me company while I take a few shots. As a thank you for this opportunity, I send copies of the photos to Power Park, which they use for Halloween promotions. Luckily for me, the day is overcast, and the daylight is gray, making the place slightly eerie in the complete silence of late autumn. I manage to take some good practice photos before driving happily towards home. I listen to a new audiobook on the way, finishing it during this trip.

When I have about 1h drive to home, a very strong snowstorm approaches our area. I decide to work from home the next day as a precaution because I hate trudging through the snow. The weather has already turned to stormy winds by the time I reach my city, and some roads feel extremely slippery, so I drive very carefully towards home. Before my roadtrip, I had ordered plenty of food, and I have freshly stocked my fridge of my favorite drinks and snacks, so I can bunker down at home with peace of mind. I park the car in the garage and I had newly purchased outdoor compact size chargeable snowblower for my backyard in my storage. Once everything is in place, I start cooking for supper. I turn on the sauna, I take a moment in my outdoor jacuzzi and roll around in the snow on the terrace and and give myself some spa treatments, then settle into a large beanbag to watch a movie. The next morning, after breakfast, I put radio on, run the laundry and fold the clothes that have dried in to the closet. I keep a long stream going with a subcontractor as we both work on a joint project. I finish up with a couple of stream calls and order supplies from an online store. I feel energetic and get a lot done, even though I'm stuck at home all day because snow blowing truck is delayed. After work, I'm inspired to clean and organizing my everyday bag, key ring, wallet, home office, and cleaning supplies. Finally, I update and tidy the bathroom and do a Les Mills Live home workout in the living room. Before I melt down in the couch I take short walk in the neighborhood to get some fresh air and earning a lazy evening, so I bury myself in a beanbag and start to watch a movie.

It's time to see my friends. I head to capital city again. The plan is to get one more Christmas gift for each of my brothers' kids and gift cards for the my brothers and their spouses. When I arrive, my first stop is downtown. Before meeting my friend, I visit the Sports Museum and couple of stores. In the early evening, I return to the hotel and head to the hotel spa area for a sauna and swim. The next day, I immediately head to couple of shopping centers. Shopping sprees are great exercise, as I track up over 30,000 steps during the day. Whenever the weather allows, I always wear good walking shoes. I enjoy wandering around shopping centers during the pre-Christmas season because they have a nice festive atmosphere, and by timing my trips on weekdays in November or December, I can avoid the last-minute rush. 

With rosy cheeks, I sit down with a caramel latte in a café between shopping sessions and review my list to see if anything is still missing. When all the shopping is done, I decide to stop one more place to buy a string of lights for the terrace and a simple LED-lit decorative branch for the entryway. I also visit an interior design store, where I find a decorative painting and a new soft rug for the guest room. I won't have a traditional Christmas tree, as I've decided to keep the decorations very minimalistic and modern. I also buy some upgrades for my extravagant gingerbread decorations for next weekend's gingerbread baking session. This is our friends group pre-christmas party. The next morning after breakfast, I'm heading back home. The gray thursday turns dark by the time I reach downtown to pick up sushi for dinner and get home. I play old Christmas songs on the central radio system and start decorating the house with the new light decorations. I organize the gingerbread decorating supplies on the side table in the kitchen for next weekend, and wrap the kids' gifts to be ready for the next visit.

The pre-christmas party is over, the Christmas presents have been sent to the subcontractors. And now it's time to close the company for three weeks and enjoy a leisurely Christmas. I tidy up my office, set the vacation auto-reply on my workspace, grab my work laptop and work phone, the remaining soft drinks from the fridge, and all the Christmas gifts I've gotten. Among them are packages from partners, gifts from subcontractors and clients, and more. Today, I'm heading straight home without going to the gym. I must admit, the packages are quite intriguing.

First, I tidy up my home. Once everything is cleaned up, I begin opening the presents. Inside the wrappings, I find gift cards, Fazer's blue chocolate, some branded merchandise from the U.S., and a beautiful silver necklace from a client's gymnastics team. After unwrapping all the gifts, I put the gift cards in my wallet, place the items in their spots. I turn on the sauna and take a dip in the hot tub. The ciabatta reserved for the evening tastes extra good as my hunger had already peaked.

During winter months there is so dark and weather is bad many times, that you need to to do fun hobbies that your spirit stays up. That's why I started to do all kinds of crafting and arts for myself. At first I just started to do them by myself until I started to film them with my phone and soon the videos was in online. Just that I could watch them back and what I have done. To my suprise many people started to watch them too and when I did one exactly drawing with paint markers it went viral. Now I have more than 600 000 subscribers. So I started to use my day offs more on this project too.