Back then, we lived in three rooms of my grandparents' house, my father's parents. My brother is standing in the front room, which was also my parent's bedroom. The Christmas tree was set up in one corner and next to it, my little play table with the tiny, fold-out doll trunk that held doll clothes, some of it hung on litte plastic hangers. My brothers and I shared one of the rooms. They had bunk beds, I had a small twin bed to myself. There was a built in closet with a curtain in front that held all our clothes. Between the two rooms was a tiny kitchen with no running water. We had a bucket that we filled from my grandparents' kitchen sink and a ladle that we drank from. To wash dishes, we carried bins of hot water from the sink in my grandparents' kitchen and set them on our small kitchen table. All eight of us (a cousin lived with my grandparents) shared a bathroom.
I've come a long way from that place in some ways, not so much in other ways. Are Christmases better or worse now? I don't even know how to begin answering that question.
What have I been doing? I've been sewing. I made a table runner and placemats and coasters. I finished the coasters and got three of the four placemats quilted and bound but I ran out of the iron-on interfacing I was using instead of batting, so I ordered more of it (and a *gallon* of unscented Best Press because that stuff is awesome and even more awesome when its on sale for roughly half off). So one placemat and the table runner will have to wait until the interfacing comes in.
In addition to the interfacing and Best Press, I also ordered a bunch of sale fabric from Hancocks of Paduca in Kentucky and Miss Matabi in Tokyo. Those orders should be arriving in the next week or so.
I've also been mostly keeping up on housework. I actually dusted bookshelves yesterday. (I loved dusting when I was a kid, if only because it allowed me to handle fragile little things that I wasn't otherwise allowed to touch and I loved the sour lemon smell of the furniture polish even if I hated the oily feeling it left behind on my hands.) After I did that, we took down the Christmas tree. (Next year, I might keep it up through the first week or January and I definitely will have it up around Thanksgiving.) All the ornaments got boxed up except for the salt-dough ornaments that we rushed through and which did not come out looking very nice (so they never made it onto the tree). We'll try again with salt-dough ornaments next year.
Other things I'd do differently for next Christmas: Dave requested some gifts, even just stocking stuffers, so we'll have those. (We did not exchange gifts this year, nor have we for many years, which is fine considering that we really want for nothing except for an end to the pandemic.) I want more lights, including more colored lights outside. I want a bigger tree, too.
Asider from sewing housework, I've been watching a lot of Netflix. (I used to read. I remember reading.) I binge watched the latest season of Emily in Paris. It's getting poor reviews, but I actually really enjoyed it. I think the show does a good job of skewering both French and Americans. After that, I watched a few stand-up comedy specials, including one from Chelsea Handler that I didn't like but then liked. Finally, I binged Heartstopper and enjoyed it very much. In fact, as soon as I finished, I started again from the beginning because I want to see if there was anything I missed in my rush to finish the series. It's earnest and beyond charming.
Today was a rush around day, getting groceries for ourselves and my brother then stopping to pick up mail from the casita (we still haven't changed our address) and briefly visit with Kelly and Kevin. We came home and had lunch and then started in on various home and pet duties.
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