Christmas 2021

Now that the busyness of Christmas is done, there's time to reflect and remember. I wasn't sure how it would all play out because Mom fell three times in the two weeks before Christmas, and I was afraid that she wouldn't be able to come over here and be with us. I suppose we could have brought Christmas to her, but I was still hopeful we could have our usual get together. As time passes, I've been wondering about how many more Christmases we'll have with her. And, I know there's nothing that can be done to stop aging, but I still always yearn for things to stay the same. Anyway, since Mom is now using a wheelchair, we had to think about how we could get her in the car and then into the house. We decided that Bruce and Mark would both drive over there to get her, Bruce driving my Beetle because it would be easier for her to get in and out of, and Mark in his truck because the wheelchair would fit into that. It worked, and we brought her over for both days. By evening, she'd forgotten that it was even Christmas, and that she'd been over here. But, I know Mom was happy to be here, I could tell by looking at her face, and that's what matters.

We decided to give a beautiful Christmas cookie platter to the staff at Elder Homestead where she lives, I think it was appreciated.

I discovered that channel 5.2 had a burning log with Christmas music playing in the background, and even though it seemed a little hokey, I loved it so much that I kept it on all day...

We had our traditional appetizers on Christmas Eve, along with baked macaroni and cheese, plus cranberries. On Christmas Day, we had bbq sloppy joes, calico beans, raspberry cinnamon applesauce jello, and potato chips. Jake and Katie brought cookies, Mark brought two kinds of cheese balls and crackers, and we had French Silk and Key Lime pies, compliments of Marie Callendar. And hot cider. It was all very delicious.

The grownups did a Secret Santa name exchange, but little boy got presents from eveybody. I put together stockings for everyone to open up on Christmas Day.

I was especially excited to see that Bruce had given me the Hotdishes of Minnesota jigsaw puzzle!

The evening was balmy on Christmas Eve, so after pretty much everyone had gone home, Mark, Bruce, and I went for a walk to look at all the lights and luminaries. We've lived in this house for over thirty years, and I've never taken the time to do this, crazy, I know. It was so beautiful. We stopped to chat with some neighbors, whose Christmas Eve dinner had to be postponed because they found out at the last minute that their son had tested positive for Covid. They thought maybe they'd freeze all the steaks they'd just grilled!

We had a pretty nice Christmas.

Reindeer Roundup

Bethlehem Lutheran Church had a Reindeer Roundup. It was so sweet and peaceful, not crowded at all. We had hot cider to drink, and little boy ate a sugar cookie with blue sprinkles. The reindeer were pros, and seemed to be able to stand still forever. I didn't see any scared kids, either. Something like this seems so much more appealing than having to sit on a strange Santa's lap!

It's Winter

We had our first big snow last Friday. Interestingly, we ended up being out and about during the storm because Jake needed a ride home from the airport around midnight! There seemed to be nobody else out on the roads until we approached the airport, I wonder why. Anyway, we hung out around the baggage area for as long as we could before we were chased away by the people monitoring the pick up zone, so we circled around again, picked up Jake, and headed to St. Paul. It was kind of an adventure, so pretty with all the new snow, and there were several people out and about, cross country skiing and even biking. We did have one big hill in St. Paul to get up, and we wondered if the car would make it. Bruce mentioned that he was glad he'd gotten new tires on his car that day ... The next day, weather reports were that St. Paul had gotten 21 inches of snow. Today we had thick fog for much of the morning, and tonight the forcast is for heavy winds and rain. I still have three pumpkins sitting out by the front door that the bunnies have been snacking on. I wonder if they'll blow away! I guess you just never know about December weather in Minnesota.

Brown Eyed Book Club Beauties (December 2021)

This month's Brown Eyed Book Club Beauties was at Mona's condo. We'd had the first snow of the year that morning, and the roads were icy, which made for kind of a stressful drive, but thankfully when it was time to drive home, the ice had melted. Our book selection was The Color Purple. I had almost finished reading it, but then Mom's painful leg happened, and I had to keep driving over there to help sort things out. Mona, of course, finished the book, she always does. Cathy decided to check the movie out of the library instead, and Kat completely forgot we had a book to read! All good. Mona showed us how to make little rice stuffed snowmen out of socks, and we had fondue. Kat brought the electric fondue pot I'd gifted her a couple of years ago, and we discovered that I'd given her the wrong heating element to go with it! We decided to eat the cheese fondue first, then wash out the one fondue pot that was left to have the chocolate fondue. Silly me. Cathy gave us loaves of Harvest Bread she'd made. Our next meeting will be at the end of January, here, and our book will be The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan.