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.