I love this ornament. The aged, faded beauty tells a story, not a personal story because I bought it a few years ago, but the story of many Christmases in some house, somewhere.
Oh, this is a strange time. A strange week. We’re doing our best to make it festive, though we’re missing gifts. Unless a miracle happens, we might be delaying our gift exchange. Fingers crossed, though it’s surely not the end of the world. This morning, we’re going grocery shopping for the week, so I’m writing this post early in the morning. We want to get there before it becomes too crowded and I’m desperately trying to wake up enough to write a list.
Tonight is the start of our week of Christmas movies every evening. We plot this out every year, usually ending with It’s a Wonderful Life or A Christmas Carol (with Alastair Sim) on Christmas Eve. Tonight will be White Christmas.
I’ve been feeling crappy for the last three days – my sinuses are really acting up. It’s time to start using the humidifier again as I suspect the dryness of the house is making things worse.
By the way, my parents’ 45 year old snake plant (sansevieria) is blooming. It has the most wonderful scent. I repotted it last year and it didn’t bloom (I was prepared, as I’d researched it.) But this year? It’s back! The paperwhites in the kitchen should bloom by Christmas. The ones in the den are growing a bit more slowly. That’s fine with me. I’m all for extending their bloom time.
Less than a month until Inauguration Day.
Stay safe.
Happy Monday.
You know you won’t be alone with late gifts, but in a way that makes me feel even closer to the Grinch tale in which Christmas came without presents and yet was joyfully celebrated. I hope that families with children can impart an appropriate sentiment in them about meanings beyond packages. I’m feeling much better since I stopped waiting for my tree and brought up my scraggly one which looks perfect to me, kind of a symbol for the battered year we’ve had, but the lights shine just as bright. Tonight is the solstice and I am determined not to forget AGAIN to look for the conjunction. I love White Christmas, so much wonderful singing and dancing and a heart-warming story of war, respect, and love. It’s a lovely tradition for you and Don to do movie nights. We’d best make the best of this holiday as I fear what will be coming at us. I hope everyone can carve out some peace and stay grateful for the essential workers who sacrifice so much for us. I wish I could be like Marmie in Little Women and take a basket of Christmas breakfasts to the hospitals, nursing homes, and grocery clerks (of course, they’re not the only ones risking their health). Stay safe! This blog of yours is a gift for many all year round. XO
We couldn’t see the conjunction because it was overcast. Ah, well.
Thank you, Nora.
Stay safe!
Tis’ the Winter Solstice magic it is own right.
I think your ornament is beautiful and I wish it could tell us its story.
Have a wonderful magical holiday season,
Kaye
Park City, UT
Thank you so much, Kaye.
The same to you and yours!
Stay safe.
I’m waiting on a couple of gifts to arrive, too.
I need to pick up a few things at the grocery store today but I’ve been lazy this morning and am still in my pajamas – it’s 11:00! I need to shower and dress after I’m done here and get my butt in gear. I need to pick up a book (grab and go) at the library, too.
Definitely get that humidifier going. We have one in our bedroom that we run at night when we’re sleeping and it has helped with my sinuses.
xoxo
I usually run the humidifier in the living room during the day and then carry it up to the bedroom at night.
Stay safe, Melanie.
I watched White Christmas yesterday afternoon. There’s a really funny still from A Christmas Carol that someone has just sent me. It’s at the end of the film where Alistair Sim is looking out of his window saying ” You, boy, what tier is this?”
I’m not sure how the U.S. is graded but we’re in Tiers depending on the numbers of Covid in each area. Another one was added on Saturday and a complete change of what is and isn’t allowed for Christmas Day has ensued. Also over 40 countries worldwide have banned travel from the UK in the last 24 hours so it’s all a bit scary.
Happy Winter Solstice
We don’t have tiers, but I know NY State has zones, according to how many cases, how they’re contained, etc. It is scary.
Stay safe, Dee Dee.
I’m looking forward to watching White Christmas later this week. One of my favorites. All our presents have arrived, but, only because I moved quickly, once I made decisions. It’s not the worst thing when presents arrive later than expected. A gift is a gift, no matter when it’s received.
Beautiful vintage ornament. Perhaps, you and Don could make up an elaborate provenance for the ornament, before it fell into your hands. An exercise in creativity if you will.
It’s going to be a semi-relaxing week for me, mostly baking. I found one of my mom’s favorite recipes last year, in a most unlikely place, so I’m going to attempt it this week. Hope your grocery shopping is stress free. Stay safe!
I ordered early, too. But we’re still missing two presents. Around here, at least, how long ago you ordered seems to have no discernable impact on when you get the package.
Enjoy your baking, Donna.
Stay safe!
Ugh on the sinuses. I can so relate — mine are my nemesis. (I will say since I started using the Neil Med sinus rinses, it has helped my sinus heads tremendously)
White Christmas is my must-see. At least once, preferably twice. And I always cry in the same place — and sing and (when alone) dance (well, NOT Danny and Vera Ellen or any Vera Ellen — I’m not sure anyone dances like she does anymore!).
I have very little stuff for Rick — and he knows what it is. But that’s OK. We’ll make up for it when we can. Meanwhile, baking cookies to deliver out this week. And that’s a gift!
Vera Ellen looks anorexic in the movie. No fat on her thighs – at all – and a very suspiciously tiny waist. I find I am distracted when she is the focus.
Stay safe, Jeanie!
I feel like our country is barely going to make it to inauguration day. Martial law???!!! Unbelievable. He is just crazy enough.
He is. But it won’t work.
Stay safe, Chris.
Such a pretty well-loved ornament! I have 2 of those from my in-laws. They have been hanging on a tree branch for every Christmas season in this house since 1938!!!! I love them dearly and carefully wrap them every year as we put them away.
I haven’t watched news all weekend and I just turned Nicolle on to listen, and I hope we make it until Jan 20. Michael Flynn IN the WH… a convicted felon…. advising an Impeached idiot to invoke Martial law??? Barr telling him he wouldn’t call up a Special Counsel for the election or for Biden’s son… perhaps that will stroke him out? Where are we? Who are we? I think this is the scariest time so far in this farce of an administration. God bless Us, everyone.
I’m actually not scared. It’s alarming to be sure, and he’s insane, and surrounded by inept sycophants – but, though he may make waves, it won’t work. We’re watching an insane guy in his “bunker” imploding in real time.
Stay safe, Chris.
That is so cool, I never knew snake plants bloomed.
The crazy man in the White House is getting pretty close to the edge. I will breathe a huge sigh of relief once Biden is inaugurated.
I think I am just about ready for Christmas. I have to grocery shop tomorrow. I hope your packages get there in time.
Happy winter solstice!
He’s Hitler in his bunker. I cannot wait until he is dragged out of that office and indicted for his crimes.
Stay safe, Marilyn.
I hope you feel better soon.
We’re debating about curbside pickup for groceries tomorrow. We are really good about using up our non-perishables/longer-term pantry storage but the lure for ‘fresh’ really begins to nag at us, even when we say we’re not going out again for a month (our area is just horrible for Covid exposure right now; at least we’re back up to two percent hospital bed capacity in my county although the whole of SoCalif is still at zero percent; I watched a ‘man-on-the-street’-style interview on TV yesterday evening where the reporter in Los Angeles queried the people doing holiday shopping [limited amount of people allowed in stores of various types] and the shoppers admitted they’re tired of being shut down, they want to see what’s in the shops to buy for holiday gifts, they want that hubbub of holiday shoppers and carols on the muzak; just won’t be denied their old routine, not even for an out-of-control epidemic; they must think they have halos on their heads, that Covid will get to everybody else and not them, I guess with also no thought that they, too, could be asymptomatic carriers of the virus).
(I have a friend who feels the same way yet she thinks she’s being very careful, but she’s still ‘out there’, going to this store and that store, not in senior hours, every little thing she thinks she has to have right now [and those things simply are NOT essential purchases {so of course I’m tearing my hair out when I hear this}, but she’s in obvious denial about finding any little excuse to have a reason to go out, when the local officials want us to STAY IN; I guess I’ll never get over the lack of self-discipline among my closest relatives and friends and neighbors at this critical time {and, hey, I’m no saint; I just have no choice due to my overall health, and I’m very grumbly about it because I’d like to be set free as well, but I do it; I stay home!}]. And one guy interviewed in that local news report said, basically, “You do that; stay home if you need to, you with the bad risk factors for the virus. But I don’t have them; I’m healthy. I’m wearing the mask; I’m within the law out here. Leave me alone.” O-kayyyy …)
(It’s my big thing for 2021 … the New Year’s goals/resolutions … that I have to stop letting this get to me [The Virus Violators] because as my husband keeps saying, ‘People aren’t listening; they don’t want to listen; they’re not going to listen; it’s some kind of different society now in America than fifty or eighty or a hundred years ago.’ [Less willingness to postpone, to delay gratification, WANT IT NOW; too self-indulgent; too much me-me-me. Yada/yada/yada; how many times has this been spoken of already.] I have to stop being so judgmental about what other people do in how they assess their own risk for the virus but I wonder how they live with themselves when they don’t know if they’re contributing to the spread, unintentionally killing somebody else. The “I don’t care” vs the “I care”; I think these past months have really been an eye opener, and what an insult to the healthcare people, all those hardworking doctors and nurses and paramedics, when somebody else’s selfishness makes these dedicated workers’ jobs SO much more difficult [they must feel like they’re fighting a losing battle]. I’ve wondered when a patient comes in who’s so sick with Covid, telling the hospital worker that they indeed did gather at Thanksgiving against the warnings, how can that nurse or doctor not say to themselves, “Well, what did you expect, and now you want me to save your life” but of course it’s not how they roll. They take an oath but also have a God-given gift to preserve/save life.)
I’m a bit ‘off’ this week, too; just ‘stuff’ going on to make it not such the quiet week I’d hoped for … but there’s still a chance, and I’m aiming for it (all is calm, all is bright; peace). I did open gifts with two different people over the weekend and it was fine, over the phone both times, on speaker (in the absence of zoom). Do I miss the in-person hugs? Sure. This year is just different; accept it. We toasted ourselves with our collective hot cocoas (under air conditioning since the weather is so warm here) and it’s life this year; it’s do-able. We had each other’s voices of good cheer. It was fine.
A friend gave us a beautiful bulb-in-a-kit amaryllis (red flower, red ceramic pot) so my husband enjoyed putting that together this morning; the bulb is already beginning to force. Should be really pretty. I’m looking out the window to my mom’s poinsettia plant (in the ground since probably 1956; always in full bloom at Christmas, right on schedule) which is about 9-ft tall and almost to the roofline of the house; so gorgeous for Christmas (HUGE red blooms; we’re taking a load of cut stems to the cemetery this afternoon, as they should last in the floral cans at the graves for at least the week, even with this wind and aforementioned heat [a lot of hot sun today, and dry {85 degrees about an hour ago already; we were below 20 percent humidity at like 3am} so, on the one hand, it’s a typical SoCalif ‘winter’ holiday; but, you know, I’ll always long for a White Christmas, and I think I saw on the weather maps that you may get a smattering of snow on Christmas Day, Claudia; sounds lovely!]).
We’re also going to get lots and lots of rain on New Year’s Eve, so I’m doubting there will be much snow – if any – left on the ground.
I’ve spent Christmas alone in the past – just a few years ago, in fact, when Don was working out in California. It wasn’t my preference but it was fine. We FaceTimed and opened some presents while we were doing that. It was okay. If people have to do that for the greater good, there are all sorts of technological things like Zoom, which will make it go down much easier.
Stay safe, Vicki.