It feels good to be writing here again. I wish this wasn't so late. I was trying to organize my personal life and kept putting off writing in favor of filling out a planner, but let's be honest here. I'll probably never end up sticking to meal planning anyway, and I'd prefer to waste my time on other less productive pursuits.
We all survived Covid. I feel like we should have T-shirts made. Symptoms emerged the first week of December for most of us and included headaches, runny noses and congestion, body aches, chills, gastrointestinal issues, and fatigue. I am just now slowly regaining my senses of taste and smell. I could not taste Christmas dinner or smell the cinnamon and pine candles burning or determine when the cookies should come out of the oven by smell. I still cannot smell outdoor smells and most unpleasant odors (the house seems unusually clean!) and nothing tastes right. It is as if the world has lost a dimension.
As I mentioned in a previous post, we lost my Grandpa December 5th. His funeral was the only of my grandparents that I was unable to attend.
Since there was so much extra time at home with all our appointments and errands cancelled, I mistakingly assumed I had loads of time to finish Christmas projects. I was going to sew all the quilts and paint all the paintings as gifts, and whip up a bunch of wood-burned ornaments. Some day I'll stop deceiving myself. I was hand-quilting a quilt (the one and only) up until a day before it needed to be done. And I had the brilliant idea to use a cozy fleece blanket as the backing to the quilt. And I didn't have a quilting hoop. And it was all a lumpy mess. I called it the Covid quilt. I gave it to my brother and sister-in-law anyway because I thought maybe they needed an extra blanket to roll up to stop a draft somewhere. Ha!
While I sewed and painted I listened to books on Audible. I've mentioned before what a pleasant way it is to get through tedious chores--well, it turns pleasant hobbies into mini-vacations. I finished The Two Towers (Lord of the Rings book 2) around the first week of December and then dove into a series of E. Nesbit and Gene Stratton Porter books. By Nesbit, I read Five Children and It and The Wonderful Garden. I recommend them both, though they are technically children's books. Hilarious and thoughtful, the children in her stories are always getting themselves into mischief though they try so hard to be good. Nesbit does such a good job of bringing the children to life that I miss them dearly when the story is over. By Porter, I read Freckles and The Harvester. I loved A Girl of the Limberlost and Laddie, and by book four I realized all of Porter's stories would have a central theme of nature intertwined with an impossible romance that eventually works itself out. Always a happy ending, which is comforting in a way.
Christmas was so nice this year, and quiet. We all made it out of quarantine on time so we were able to attend Christmas Day Mass as a family. That is always my favorite gift.
We had a tight budget this year, so instead of a specific number of gifts, we had a dollar amount that was not to be crossed. As a result, no "oops, that added up quick" purchases were put on the credit card. I got Eli an ox horn mug (he's holding it in the photo), a permanent match, and new socks. He got me a set of unpainted nesting dolls, travel watercolors, and watercolor books.
And that sums up our December!
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