December life

My dad found out yesterday he tested positive for Covid.  The most germ conscious, mask obsessed, hand sanitizing person I know. He got tested just to be safe to get together for the holidays and here it is: Congratulations! You have Covid! He has had a small cough and sinus drainage for the last week but that is all. He feels fine. Walks 3 miles in the park every morning.  Frankly, it is confusing. 

So now the oldest is out of school, the husband and I are getting tested Christmas may be cancelled as far as seeing the grandparents. Plus this week we had the Honda towed to the garage as it had broken down in the driveway.

What is it about December? Last year our stove, dryer and car died. The year before that my grandfather passed away and I had a miscarriage. 

What the hell.

Here is our Christmas tree, Decorated with oranges and little crafts the kids have made. There are also some small plastic animals tossed into the branches like a giraffe. I do love it. 

Hard at work cutting the twine.

It's hard finding active things to do to burn off energy in the evening, with the early darkness and the kids cooped up inside the house. Last night we put on their favorite YouTube video of 80's breakdancing and had them make up moves like "the cold penguin " and "the candy cane".  We have also taken them outside with flashlights and glow sticks. Any suggestions are welcome. It's going to be a long winter.

I'm going to go through my pictures from the last two weeks and remind myself that in spite of all of the negatives we are not only surviving but thriving.

Mr. A. and I taking a walk. If I were a painter I would find this picture interesting. 

Upon seeing this on the garden shed Mr. A declared "look mom! It's a queen!" He is so funny. Yesterday he was at the table for lunch and doing that thing kids do where they blow through their lips sending spittle everywhere. I asked him to stop. He said "It's funny!" I told him it wasn't and he retorts "well, it is A BIT funny". I was laughing so hard I was in tears.

The husband and I have been playing Clue every night after the kids go to bed.

And I have taken all of the curiosities out of the dining room barrister case; the skulls, coral, fossils and eggs are all packed away to make room for Christmas Britains.

The idea was to put down cotton batting to look like snow but none of them were able to stay upright so we just went with the trees.

My sister is a huge fan of true crime tv, Law and Order SVU and the podcast My Favorite Murder.  I made this ransom note style postcard to send to her this week:

It was SO much fun.

Here is the back:

It's true, it was difficult to find some of the letters, I could only find an issue of Martha Stewart and one of Food and Wine to cut up. But so very fun to make, like unreasonably fun for how simple it is.

Also on the letter/postcard front I officially have my first penpal since gradeschool. It's a woman I sent a postcard to through Postcrossing,  the hand drawn one of the book shelf, we have a ton in common, she asked if I would be interested in writing. I am. So far it's been fun. She does not appear to be a prisoner or a Nigerian prince or a murderer.  

Mr. H had a Dr. Suess day at school and I drew him a mask.

My birthday was earlier in the month. 41 is a lot of candles.

There was boozy yoga.

Gifts of this adorable clock and a nice pen for writing.

Dinner in. We have been to a restaurant exactly once all year, back in July.

My inlaws got me a really nice Norticware baking pan for my birthday. I made the lemon honey pull apart recipe that came with it. It's light and lovely. 

We've also been getting gifts of food. A friend gave us a very large quantity of a specialty meat last week, they overestimated the size of their freezer. I was thrilled and made 6 lbs of it into jerkey.  We have also received holiday gift baskets from Hickory Farms and a very exciting big pastry/coffee basket from Zabar's in Manhattan. The chocolate babka looks amazing.  It's really thoughtful and means we have to go to store less.

So today we are going to get the kids outside in the snow after lunch. Then maybe finish the Christmas decorations.  It's going to be a different kind of Holiday to cap off a different kind of year.