It was exactly one week after ringing in the New Year when Salve Regina University junior Sharon DeAlmeida found herself sleeping in until 10 in the morning. Later that day, she hung out at the mall and caught a movie with her friends. She had completely forgotten about what she had decided to do for her New Year’s Resolution.

When we return to posting the week of Jan. 21, Mosaic’s editors will begin a travel series detailing just where we have spent our break, and we want to know where you’ve been too.

We have all seen it coming. We see the commercials, the decorations that smother the stores, and all the sales and promises of “buy four get one free” gifts. Let’s face it – the holiday season is here. Whether or not you get goose bumps at the sight of Christmas lights, or cringe and start to feel the anxiety rise and get to your spirit.

Bah! Humbug.

In the past few days, I have heard of women trampled at Walmart in search of $29 DVD players, some guy who beat up a lady in the parking lot because she looked at his wife funny in the check-out line, and once again the ACLU is threatening lawsuits over a few statues on a lawn.

And we call this Christmas. Who needs it?

Like most winter nights it had already been dark for hours when I arrived shortly before 6 p.m. in the Easton’s Beach parking lot. The night was windy and cold, the last nor’easter had melted away and the hint of the next one was already in the air. The last thing I would ever expect to be doing is hiking, but that’s exactly where I found myself last Wednesday night.