Happy Solstice

My neck is a mess right now--has been for about ten days--so I'll make this short and sweet.

It was a beautiful day today, almost 70 degrees out, very early September weather now at the end of December. (This time year before last we had already had snow. I don't think we'll see snow again this year.) How did we mark the winter solstice? We went out on a grocery run and then later to try to take some boxes to the recycling bin (but it turned out to be completely full so we had to bring all our boxes home).  

We put up our tree yesterday, kind of. It has about half the lights and half the ornaments it had last year, but after the last couple of weeks--the last year, really--I'm fine with it. Christmas is going to be a mess for a few years, probably, a reminder of grief and grieving rather than a celebration of whatever it is that we're supposed to be celebrating at Christmas. 

So the tree went up and I finally took down the Day of the Dead altar on the mantelpiece. We did not put up outdoor lights this year and luminarias are unlikely, though maybe we'll round up a few. We have a ton of tealights from IKEA and brown paper bags from who knows where and we are nothing if not awash in sand here in the desert. We can manage a handful of luminarias on Christmas eve if need be.

It's going to be a busy week around Christmas though. This week we are taking our car in to get the door fixed (the inside handle just gave up and stopped working almost two weeks ago). Gray Kitty has a vet appointment to get the claw that he ripped out looked at. And then there's Christmas, which falls on Thursday this year, preempting therapy, thank god.  And I have yet to make travel arrangements for our trip to Miami. Oh, and I also need to go get my Covid shot. I think I'll do that the day after Christmas. 

We did not do any baking this year and maybe, same as last year, Christmas dinner will be takeout from the mediocre but dependable Chinese take-out place near us. 

I did order some New Years Cards to send out, though only about three people I know send out cards at all. And I ordered some new Christmas ornaments. We've been adding ornaments that remind us of family--a hamster for my older brother, a horse for Dave's mom, a trout for his dad, a canoe for both (Dave read Paddle to the Sea to both his parents, the first time as a child), and I finally just threw in the towel and ordered a set of six glass sugar skull ornaments. I figure those should cover us in the event of an emergency.

I'm exhausted. Tonight we had vegetarian yakiudon for dinner, made with tofu and lots of vegetables.  Doesn't that sound nice? Tomorrow maybe we'll get a pizza.