We’re
ramping up for the end of the year holidays, Christmas and New Year’s Eve. Thanksgiving is in the rear view mirror and I’m
still full! Ha ha! Maybe it’s just that all the delicious food
is sitting around my waist making my pants too tight? Oh well! Maybe all the running around preparing
for Christmas will remove some of that although part of preparations include
lots of treats baking so…..oh well! We
did have a very nice time Thanksgiving Day, as we usually do. It was weird being without brother Dan; this
is the first Thanksgiving without him that we’ve been able to get together with
anyone not living here, although he passed away June of 2020 during the
shutdown. We talked about him and told
stories also about our loved ones no longer with us, and I think that’s part of
any holiday family dinner. It helps keep
their memory alive and gives the next generation an idea of what kind of people
they come from. I think it’s comforting.
We
decorated outside the weekend after turkey day and that always is a cheery
thing to do although a cold thing to do.
It was windy that day, too, so the wind chill was probably making it
feel like it was in the 20’s. Of course, there had to be a quick run to the
corner store for another string of lights and lots of hot coffee and turkey
soup afterward to warm up. It was a fun thing to do with my daughter and her
boyfriend helping. A few days later we
had a dusting of snow and that was nice, it made the deck tree and lights look
pretty and Christmassy, and since it didn’t stick to the roads we didn’t mind
it at all. I wonder if we’ll have any
snow for Christmas Day. I really do like
it when there’s a little snow on Christmas morning, but not so much that we
need to shovel and our family can’t safely travel to get here. I guess we shall see!
I made a
new wreath during a caregiver’s support group crafting zoom, and it was fun to
do. I hung it on the door to what will
eventually be an office/guest room but is currently a holding room for things
we don’t know what to do with. I didn’t
want to hang the wreath on the door because I’m afraid it wouldn’t survive the
opening and closing of the front door. I plan to start decorating the inside of
the house next week.
I’ve
been trying to get my gift shopping done early, partly because the news about
supply chains is a little concerning, but mostly because I do have the time and
would rather be able to take my time wrapping and avoid a last minute rush
while I’m also trying to bake and prepare for Christmas dinner with my family. I’m finding that the one thing stores don’t
seem to be stocking this year is the candied fruits and fruit peel for
fruitcake! I happened to be in Walmart
before Thanksgiving and saw the red and green cherries so I picked up a couple
packs so I’d have them, but I wanted more because I also us them in a cookie
recipe. I have one more store to check and
then I guess I have to either order from Amazon or just use what I have this year
and make another kind of cookie. It
seems curious to me the things that are in short supply periodically since the
pandemic began almost 2 years ago. It’s so hard to believe that’s how long we’ve
been masking, and arguing about all things covid related, and staying away from
others as much as we can while still living our lives. It’s a little bit
wearying, but humans are resilient and I guess we’ll just keep on moving
forward to the best of our abilities.
What else can we do, really?
