HOLLY JOLLY

I had our Christmas card design ready for ordering almost two months ago. Then I received a coupon and ordered those cards a month ago. I have a stack of cards on my desk waiting to be addressed and I don’t even know who I am any more. The card design came to me by accident and started with a picture taken while hunting for the new dining room table. That table is currently taking up the space where I would normally set up our Christmas tree. So while I may be ahead on the cards, I am at a loss on how I might decorate this year. I’m thinking of only putting out the stockings, hang a wreath on the door and set up the Menorah. There are also no presents. I have a brilliant idea to take the box my mattress came in that I stored in the basement and fill it with individually wrapped gifts for the Cabbage. Except, at this point, I don’t know what to get her because she’s reached that weird age of not really being into anything but her tablet.

How excited she’ll be to open a giant box containing nothing but a pair of earrings.

This year, I am surprised with how much I seem to be embracing the jolliness of the holiday season. I have always disdained the appearance of Christmas on the day after Halloween. Those radio stations that start playing all of the Christmas tunes in November get banned from being played in the car. I once worked at a department store over the holiday and was stuck folding clothes to Christmas songs on a loop for a month. That was enough to turn me into a right Grinch for all things Christmas. This year seems different. Early last week I found myself playing Andrew Birds’ new Christmas album, Hark!, on loop. Man, can that guy whistle and his rendition of Souvenirs makes me dance a silly jig. On Saturday as we drove to Costco, Michael flipped the radio over to a station already playing Christmas songs and the car turned into my own personal choir concert. He let me get through at least three songs before he turned the station with “that’s enough of that.”

With the infection rates being so high right now, we will not be traveling anywhere to visit with family and friends. Our mayor is set to announce new restrictions at noon today. Michael and I have decided to have our Thanksgiving dinner on the Friday after Thanksgiving. They have dollar oysters at Whole Foods on Fridays and our plan is to buy up a mess of them for an Oystergiving. Let’s face it, as we get closer to the end of this year, there seems to be a real urgency to celebrate. It is not so much an urgency to celebrate the end of 2020 as it is to celebrate surviving this year. Oystergiving and singing Christmas tunes at the top of our lungs seems like a pretty nice way to celebrate right now.

THANKFUL FRIDAY

Third night

2 Likes, 1 Comments - Cindy Maddera (@elephant_soap) on Instagram: "Third night"

Tuesday evening marked the first night of Hanukah. Michael and I rushed through our lighting of the first candle and Hanukkah prayers because we had to get across town for the Cabbage's school Christmas play. She was the Reindeer Whisperer, which was a very important part because her character saves Christmas. The performers were all first graders and I commend the music teacher for her ability to herd a hundred cats. One of my favorite performers was a kid dressed as a reindeer. His signature dance move was the pelvic thrust while wiggling his fingers at his family in the audience. The kid playing Santa had a broken leg. He spent the performance seated in a big chair center stage. Occasionally he would pick up his good leg and play with the bottom of his shoe. At the middle point in the play, he pulled his fake beard off and thoroughly scratched his face with both hands.  The whole production was spectacular, including the moment Mrs. Santa broke character to yell "WE NEED THE REINDEERS DOWN HERE!"

On the second night of Hanukkah, everyone got home late and it was well after sundown when we lit our menorah candles and said our prayers. We stood there for maybe a minute longer than we had the previous night. Both of us were tired. Michael is fighting the sinus congestion cold that I had all weekend and I am still dealing with the aftermath of all that congestion. Both of had to stop gazing at the burning candles in order to go blow our noses. The third night of Hanukkah was not much different from the second night of Hanukkah, with the two of us cramming in the candle lighting between making dinner and paying bills. We are definitely, unintentionally, lacking in enthusiasm this year, but we persist. We persist because of the third blessing that was said on the first night: 

Praised are You, Our God, Ruler of the universe, Who has given us life and sustained us and enabled us to reach this season.

We put the emphasis on the part about being able to reach this season, because ain't that truth. 

The Cabbage mentioned something about getting a different stocking for our house. I made a big fuss over the blood, sweat and cursing that went into the making of her stocking. I'd had a hard time getting the sewing machine to work properly that year. Michael asked me when I had made my stocking. I told him that I had made my stocking along with Hooper's the year before I had made his and the Cabbage's. Michael thought about this for a minute and then said "Wait...you made a stocking for yourself and your dog for your first Christmas alone and then your dog died before Christmas? That's the saddest story." I just shrugged, but was thinking that it all depends on how you look at things. Sure it was sad, but at the same time appropriately hilarious because it is a dark comedy that only Chris could have written for the big screen. Of course the heroine of the story loses her husband and her dog in the same year. That's just the first five minutes of this movie. It's what she does after those losses that has the audience standing in ovation. 

So yeah...I am thankful for whatever enables us to reach this season. I am also thankful for the reminder to pause, even if it is just for a short moment, in our busy daily life to recognize and honor the fact that we are still here, still kicking, still putting up the good fight. And speaking of putting up the good fight, I want to thank the Black women of Alabama for getting out and rocking that vote on Tuesday. It is one thing for me to say thank you through social media, but I want to do better than that. So I'm trying to figure out a way to move either my monthly Planned Parenthood donation or monthly Donors Choose donation to the NAACP. I can't do all three, but I will find a way! It may mean that I end up helping out physically with campaigns and doing more foot work. I recognize that I can do more to show my gratitude. Actually, there is something I want more of in the next year and that would be more gratitude in action. 

I am thankful for Terry (he knows why). I am thankful for my Neti pot. I am thankful for lunch with a friend who has spent the last year just traveling all around this planet. I am thankful to hear her stories. I am thankful for the little surprises that come with this season. And...I am thankful for you.

THANKFUL FRIDAY

Yes it is.

elephant_soap's photo on Instagram

I feel like I'm rushing ahead this week. Like next week should be Thanksgiving. I even bought a bag of apples last Sunday in preparations for an apple pie on Thanksgiving. Now I realize that those apples may not survive another week. While I'm baking pumpkins for pie filling this weekend, I'll be peeling and slicing apples to store in the freezer until I'm ready to make Thanksgiving day pies. Wednesday felt like Thursday. Thursday felt like Friday. It seems that I want that snowball to roll down the mountain faster then it really wants to go. I'm not really sure where that comes from. I'm usually a "whoa Nelly!" type of person. 

I just sense great joy headed in this direction. I know that our house is soon to be filled with friends and family. I know that soon the kitchen will be filled with warmth and the smell of roasting goodness. Knowing that all of that is just around the corner, fills my heart with joy and the kind of excitement I used to have for Christmas mornings when I was little creeping down the stairs in my Christmas night gown. I am pleasantly surprised by this and thankful.

There is often a sense of dread that comes with the Holiday season. I'm not good around hustle and bustle. Large crowds make me twitchy and stabby. There is the added sadness of missing loved ones lost. The holidays are emotionally tough. I also feel an intense internal pressure to make every single human being happy, but particularly those I love. This internal pressure intensifies during the holidays and I always have this sense of panic that I'm not going to have enough time to spend with each person. And it's not you guys (I'm talking to friends and family). It's me. It's the pressure and stress I put on myself because I love you all so dang much. I am thankful for all of my friends and family. I am thankful that I have them to love so dang much. But more than anything, I am thankful that I don't have that sense of dread this holiday season. It's just not there. I am thankful that I am looking forward to this holiday.

This first snow of the season is happening on Saturday. I will always be a summer girl, but I'm working really hard at having a good attitude about the weather. I live in a part of the country that has actual seasons. It's November. Cold should be expected. I heard someone say that they had seen snow here on Halloween before. 'Tis the season. Let it snow. Thursday I made large crock-pot of jackfruit chili. I've purchased a deck of Old Maid and Go Fish and I'm considering buying a deck of Uno (because I can't find mine). There's plenty to do around the house if we don't feel like venturing out in the weather. Did I mention I have pie pumpkins that need baking? The house will be cozy this weekend for sure. I am thankful for it all. So here's to a weekend of warmth and card games. And a truly Thankful Friday.