The family sleeps still. It is a little after 8 a.m., and just as is the case every year, my children finally succumb to the need for rest and let go of the anxiousness of the season.

It has been a busy few weeks. They need the rest, and I cherish the quiet to read and to write.

I just finished reading John Grisham’s Skipping Christmas, which was a fun, quick holiday read to keep my mind off the hectic happenings all around me. Now I’m immersed in Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight, and can’t stop turning the pages. This is a highly edited piece of writing, folks, that has cut out all of the fluff. She (or her editor) wastes no time with telling the story. It’s a style of writing that I can appreciate, but only in certain stories. This is one of them. I wonder if the remaining three books are written so concisely. . . .

This will be my challenge for the remainder of the break: To balance process with product. Time (as I’ve been given this morning) is the ideal way for me to manage the two with some measured success. The less time I have to work at this pace, the more I feel the paralysis working through me, until it’s all about lamenting about not having a process at all that might lead to any product.

My morning has been ideal: to multi-task at will between reading two books, writing both in my digital and paper daybooks, sketching abstract art, working on a 400-piece jigsaw puzzle, and cleaning up in and outside the house. All this in the last three hours since awaking a little before 5:30. When my family awakens in the next 30 minutes or so (I expect), I will be ready for the day with greater energy, patience, and outward loving for all of them. It is the best of all worlds for me.

I hope you have had a wonderful holiday. I’ll be around to friends’ blogs and facebook pages to see the updates and photos as the morning progresses. . . .