Happy Merry

Happy almost Christmas.

We sent out our Christmas cards a few days ago and reports have come back from people receiving them. (My therapist got her "feliz navidad" one, Kelly and Kevin got the hanging skully ornament with the candy cane moustache, Judi and Buzz got the side-eye snowman and we also sent out cards to Lydia (invisible snowman), Rudy (gingerbread man w/ a bite out), my mother (the grinning snowman), Char (the two-headed gingerbread man), Chris (skully and crossed candy canes), Grace and Chris (black cat w/ mouse), Dave's sister (black cat), and Dave's parents (wreaths), and his coworkers (feliz navidad).) I used to send out dozens and dozens of cards every year, but that has dwindled in recent years. We also used to get a lot of cards, but not so much anymore. Times change, don't they?

Our Christmas tree is up and decorated entirely with hand- and home-made ornaments. My little tree is up with its multicolored lights and decorated mainly with Ojo de Dios crosses made from toothpicks and embroidery floss. (It is a bit sparse though and I want to have more ornaments for it.)  

We have yet to hang our stockings. I have one that my mother made for me many years ago and Dave has one that his grandmother made for him many, many years ago. We ordered some stocking hooks to hang them from our mantel so we just need to do it.

Around here, we've been eating sugar and sugary things related to Christmas. Dave made a version of biscochitos from a recipe he found online and they taste really good, but they're not biscochitos, if you know what I mean. So we'll eat these and make another batch. He also made gingerbread which I love but which I have an allergic reaction to (I think it might be the cloves) so we might try another batch with something other than cloves (maybe cinnamon and cardamom?). I contributed a batch of eggless brownies and reading this partial list of all the treats we've been consuming (which doesn't include the bought cookies and chocolates), I'm a little scared. That's a lot of sugary stuff. 

After making cards and ornaments, I turned to finishing the blocks for my next quilt. This one will be a log cabin quilt. I sewed eighty small blocks, then sewed four of the small blocks into larger blocks (seriously, they're almost twenty-four inches square). Each of the larger blocks will get quilted individually and then sashed together and bound and then I'll have the first completed quilt in our new house. I also have two that were sent out for quilting and returned in August during the move that are sitting without binding. I don't know why I didn't just have them bound at the same time they were quilted. (I think it was going to add around $150 to the total and for some reason I decided at that moment to economize.)

I've also finished an old journal and started a new art journal. I also picked up a journal that Dave gave me a long time ago (one of the "Wreck this Journal" journals) and started working in that. I'm doing a lot of collage type stuff and drawing and sketching. So of course that meant that I had to get online and order some new art supplies (well, Prismacolor pencils were on sale, so how could I resist ordering a complete set of available colors--which were promptly backordered so I won't see them before the new year). 

Entertainment-wise, I've been watching Firefly Lane on Netflix and a lot from youtube channel from Australia called The Ultimate Recycler. I get through a lot of episodes because I've been playing them in the background while I do other things. I do the same with stand-up comedy and recently watched new specials from Sebastian Maniscalco, Deon Cole and Tom Papa.

Health-wise, I went to see the audiologist and the ENT and I have to go next month for an MRI and CT. Hopefully it will turn out to be nothing. I also had a zoom visit with my PCP and we talked about upping my HTN meds, but I think I'm going to hold off because it seems to make my tinnitus worse.

House-wise, we went to an actual furniture store and looked at sofas. I couldn't decide and now I'm back to looking at sofas online. I mean, eventually we'll get one...or we'll get old and then we'll just move directly into a nursing home and they'll have one there, right?