Returning to work after time away does not require apologizing for having had a life outside it.

Coming back after time away invites a strange kind of apology, as though having been ill, or a parent, or a carer, or simply absent were an imposition on the work. The absence was already accounted for. Opening with a defence teaches everyone, including you, to treat a life outside the job as a debt in need of repayment.

Return with a plain sentence about what you are picking up rather than an explanation of where you have been. Ask what changed while you were gone. Keep the apologies for things you actually did wrong, which this is not.