Happy New Year, dear friends. I thought I would be back to blogging way earlier than now. However, the holidays really wore me out this year. And when I become this tired, I can't think or be creative or articulate thoughts very well.
Here's a brief recap of my holidays.
I didn't have as much help leading up to Christmas as I have in past years. One daughter was sick and in bed the week prior to Christmas, and the other daughter was working on a big deadline for a client. Despite less help, I baked, cooked, cleaned, decorated, shopped, wrapped. and hosted day after day. I counted the number of batches of cookies that I baked these past 2 weeks --I baked 10 batches of cookies! Most of these cookies were given away to neighbors, friends, and family. We have some mini gingerbread men and a couple of peppermint swirls remaining from my baking. We also were on the receiving end of cookies and candies from some of these neighbors and family. I have frozen most of the cookies and will thaw them a few at a time over the coming weeks.
Whilst in baking mode, I revived my sourdough starter which had been dormant in the fridge for a couple of years. I made one very poor batch of sourdough pancakes, followed by a much improved batch of pancakes. After several mornings of pancakes, I made a poor loaf of long-fermented sourdough bread. This afternoon I began another loaf of long-ferment bread, tweaking the measurements a bit, in hopes of producing a much improved loaf this next time. I'll know later this week if my changes made a difference.
Christmas Eve was lovely, but a bit lonely. One daughter was still sick in bed. The other spent the afternoon with her boyfriend, then went to church in the evening by herself. My husband and I attended an early afternoon church service. This was the very first Christmas Eve that just my husband and I attended services together in literally decades. We have had kids with us every other Christmas since the first was born.
We had a wonderful family Christmas Day with our son and daughter-in-law. I may have been tired, but I really enjoyed spending the day with both of them.
As one daughter had been sick on actual Christmas Eve, we postponed our family Christmas Eve traditional dinner and movie until the 27th. Every year after Christmas Eve church, we watch It's a Wonderful Life while eating Chinese. I make the Chinese meal using a bunch of frozen foods. A convenience food Chinese meal made at home is about half the cost of getting Chinese take-out.
A couple of days after Christmas we hosted a dinner with friends that we hadn't seen in several years, staying up far later than we normally do. Then the very next day, we had more guests at our dinner table.
New Year's Eve, we watched another movie and enjoyed taco salad bowls for dinner (made by one daughter). Afterward, we watched the countdown to the ball drop in NYC, then all hit the hay.
I think my other daughter could see I was running out of steam as the week progressed. She and her boyfriend made New Year's Day dinner for us.
And here we are today, 2 days into the new year already. I'm still finding it hard to believe that it's 2025. The days between Thanksgiving and New Year's flew by.
January has historically been my quiet month. This year will be something of an aberration to that. We have a couple of family gatherings this month, with both my side of the family and my husband's. I also have my last dental surgery later this month. This one shouldn't have the long recovery time as the last one. But I'm not looking forward to it, nonetheless.
One last thing -- I began physical therapy for my shoulder (the injury when I fell while painting the deck railing). My shoulder has healed, but it's lost a lot of strength. So the exercises have begun, and I hope to regain this lost strength over the next couple of months.
That about catches you up on my life since I last blogged. How have your past 2 weeks been? I hope that you have all enjoyed beautiful holidays spent with loved ones. Fill us in on the highlights of your Christmas and New Years. If you're still here reading this blog, say hey.
I'll have lots more to talk about tomorrow afternoon. Have a good one!
Happy New Year to you too!
ReplyDeleteWe had a very quiet laid back Christmas and New Year Day partly due to getting over being sick for the month of December and partly because work (for me) has been crazy busy. Still very busy into the new year and makes me think along the lines of how retirement is sounding like a good idea!
We made no cookies nor other goodies and therefore didn't eat any either. We did have a dessert that my daughter made for Christmas day but no other goodies. Christmas dinner was what I had in the freezer and pantry which was ham, chicken, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, peas, gravy and some hard rolls. We didn't put a single Christmas movie on to watch this year but instead chose to go to bed very early to try to get as much rest as we could. I did put up our fake Christmas trees and called it "The Medley of Trees" -- a ceramic tree, a wooden advent tree, a small tree from my college days, a small tree purchased about 3 years ago, and two trees from mother-in-law that we took after she died. They have those fiber lights and the trees rotate. That's all I could handle.
New Years day we took everything down and gave the house a good cleaning to begin the New Year. We're feeling much better and the delightful surprise is that my weight is down due to no extra sweets!
Hi Alice,
DeleteI think you made sound choices for your situation. I hope you and your husband are now feeling yourselves again. I love your "medley of trees." Very festive and somewhat low-effort while you regained your strength from the illness. Hey, that's a bonus -- to have lost some weight during the holidays! Many of us deal with the opposite "surprise."
Wishing you and your family a healthy and joy-filled new year, Alice!
That was a lot of holiday activity - especially since you did almost all of the work. I'm not surprised it wore you out, but I know you enjoyed celebrating with family and friends. I hope your daughter's illness does not spread throughout the rest of the family.
ReplyDeleteWe had a good Christmas celebrating with various family and friends, but I'm ready to move forward. However, our Christmas things will stay up for a few more days until the Epiphany. Here's hoping that most of your January will be calm.
Hi Live and Learn,
DeleteI'm glad your Christmas season went so well. I do understand being ready to move forward after such a busy time of year. I feel the same. We also keep our decorations up until Epiphany. That date has significance in our family's spiritual life.
Fortunately no one else caught what my daughter had. It helped that she kept herself in her room almost all of the time, with meals and water brought to her as she wanted. She's feeling much better now, which is good as she starts back up to work at a high school on Monday morning.
May your year ahead be filled with peace and joy, Live and Learn.
I'm glad you had an enjoyable season. I'm sure going to church on Christmas eve without your kids was a bit odd. Life is full of adjustments, isn't it?
ReplyDeleteWe have had a busy season. Because we drove to my in-law's on Christmas day, we celebrated our immediate family Christmas on the morning before. It was a bit odd, because later in the day we met up at my brother's church for a Christmas eve service, and then for a meal afterwards at his house. The timing felt backwards to me and I was struggling to remember what I needed to accomplish, and when. My brain is slowing with age. :)
We had a really nice visit at my in-law's house. They had been recovering from a recent bout with covid, and my brother-in-law's family was recovering from the flu (respiratory), so we were slightly nervous about catching something, but we all came through and stayed healthy, thankfully. New Year's Eve was the four of us at our home, and we enjoyed playing games. Work and having visitors has filled up the time, too. I'm looking forward to some quiet in my schedule. Our decorations are still up. The timing of our trip meant that my daughter, especially, didn't really get much of a chance to enjoy the decorations. Not sure when we will take them down.
Wishing everyone a wonderful 2025!
Hi Kris,
DeleteIt sounds like although your celebrations were a bit off with your traditional timing, you still had a great time with various family. And I'm sure glad none of you caught Covid or the flu while visiting with everyone.
That's so nice of you, mom, to leave up the decor for your daughter to enjoy now! Wishing you and your family a lovely year ahead.
Just catching up after the holidays. While different from your norm, your celebrations and get-togethers sound pleasant aside from the illness.
ReplyDeleteOur holidays felt very different as well. Back in October, I had this feeling that we should visit my parents in Virginia for Christmas, and my husband agreed. Due to a couple of the kids' jobs, we ended up planning to leave home the day after Christmas for VA. I was busy with classes and exams up through the week before Christmas, but did bake cookies with some of the kids around the 20th (I think? Whatever the Friday before Christmas was.). Not a lot, but enough to have a few. Our daughter, SIL, and granddaughter moved about an hour from us in early November due to his new job, but they came up for Christmas Eve to celebrate my b-day, and then again on Christmas, which was low-key and featured the delicious heat-and-eat brisket from Sam's Club. Our daughter and granddaughter then stayed the night and house and pet-sat during our trip. My brother from Florida was also at my parents overlapping our first 3 days there, so we did gifts there as well and celebrated his b-day the 28th, as well as getting family pictures done on the 30th for my parents' anniversary on the 31st. We left on the 2nd and got home late afternoon on the 3rd. Kids and I both go back to school tomorrow, the 6th, except the college kid who starts back the 16th and will move back on the 13th. I'm tired and feel a bit "behind" on life, seed-starting, house organization projects that I would have liked to accomplish, etc... . But hoping to gradually tackle that over the next few weeks. We have a cold snap moving in today with lows in the teens, so it will be good weather to stay in. Merry Belated Christmas!
Happy belated birthday, Cat!
DeleteYour holidays sound very busy, especially since you just barely finished classes/exams and had to jump right into celebrating the holidays. I'm glad you were able to visit with your parents and brother. I bet your parents really enjoyed their time with you all.
I'm sure you'll be able to catch up on other life in small bits now that the holidays are over. Happy New Year to you and yours, Cat!