Thursday, December 1, 2022

Christmas is upon us

We did manage to get nearly all of the Christmas stuff banged out over the weekend. Having the H home all weekend just to work on house stuff was…unprecedented, really. Neither of us could remember the last time that had happened. So along with the usual post-trip mountains of laundry, groceries, clean up and general re-orienting to being home, we assessed the exterior house lights and bought what we were missing, got a tree, lit the house and decorated the inside and tree, and I even managed to make us all peppermint cocoa from scratch for us to sip while watching The Jerk. It was a nice time.

Yesterday I tracked down our wedding photos for use in our Christmas cards, an ornament, and an elaborate wedding photo book that I’ll put together today or tomorrow (if I don’t do this now it’ll never happen). Next week starts the candy factory for gifts for friends and family; we ordered pretty much all of the kids’ stuff on Amazon last night, I ran to World Market for interesting candy and toys for stocking stuffers; everything is, shockingly, in order. 

I’m so glad we’re getting a jump on this stuff now because soon I’ll be in gig hell - our Knott’s Merry Farm residency starts with a sound check next Wednesday and then every weekend we play and just about every night that week before Christmas. Plus a few other gigs here and there and I won’t be home much in the evenings soon. It’s the very busy quiet before the storm, really.

Kids have two more weeks of school after this and we’re all counting the days. I don’t know why I am - I panicked slightly the other day when I realized that before our Florida visit we have two full weeks of kids not in school and me without the slightest clue what to do with them all day. I’d like to think I’ll be motivated to get us out and be active and do interesting things…but I gotta be honest, I know a large portion of those days will be spent with all of us in PJs, the boys on their iPads watching inane gamer videos and me in my bed watching murder documentaries. Such is modern life. I’m trying to squeeze in a quick trip to the cabin during that time - just so we can check in once this month, maybe get those final three poles set for hammocks - but it all depends on the H’s work. I would love something like that just to break up the monotony. But we may just be stuck here in the cold and gray.

Apparently the boys have some kind of Christmas pageant going at school, one I’m assuming parents can actually go to. They don’t seem to know what or when it is, but I’m going to guess the last day of school in the morning. I’m excited for this - it’s been three long years since the last one when Theo was in kindergarten. Bobby brought home an application to be a part of the yearbook team and was really jazzed about it - it’s the first time I’ve seen him excited about something at school. I hope he gets selected, and I hope it doesn’t end up not being what he thinks. I told him I was editor of my high school yearbook and it was a blast putting it together. 

I finally got it together to give away a large box of Christmas decorations I haven’t used since I was running a swing dance club in 2003 - lots of cheap garlands and decor plus ornaments we never use anymore because I’ve acquired so many others in the last few years (kids make lots of ornaments at school and I buy them on our travels). I put them on my Buy Nothing group and a single mom who’s picked up stuff from me before came and got them. Later she sent me a heartfelt message about how this was her first year being divorced and trying to decorate and how she doesn’t have any stuff, and how excited her kids were to decorate the tree. She even sent me a video of them putting everything up and saying thank you. Omg! I mean if that isn’t the spirit of Christmas, I don’t know what. The Buy Nothing group has been my best friend lately - I am very slowly purging things from this house, and it’s way easier to just donate stuff than try to sell it. I could just put things on the street, but I like the personal connection this method has. Lots more to go!




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