Week 51 - Quiet Before Christmas

It was a quiet week. With all my Christmas prep done - packages shipped, trees up and jam made - and no plans in the evenings, there wasn't much going on. I did manage a few errands at least.

I'd needed an oil change for awhile but had failed when I was in Lincoln so I made an appointment at Walker Tire in Wahoo. I dropped my car before knitting and Andrea drove me home afterwards. She then picked me up just before noon the next day so I could pick it up. It's nice to have friends.

I went to the bank to get gift cards for the library staff over lunch on Wednesday then picked up my grab and go at Mocha C's, which always feels like a treat. I taught a class Wednesday after lunch and had a perfectly normal evening of knitting and TV. So I don't know why I woke up in a funk on Thursday. 

I felt like I could cry or go cranky so chose the latter and was just in a mood all morning. Looking for a pick me up, I decided then and there to take Friday off. I had no plans but would use my Labor Day banked holiday since Trump had declared the 24th a federal holiday so I didn't need it over break. 

With that decision made, I called Andrea to see if she'd be willing to stop on her way to work to open my package from Dottie, which had sock yarn used as packing material. Surely sock yarn would improve my mood! She came over and not only pulled out some fun sock yarn but a bag of granny square centers that I'd asked my sister to make for me for an afghan I had started in the summer. Well, Fentons do nothing by halves and when I counted them at lunch, there were 472! I had already made 100 and so only needed 264 more. Guess what I spent Friday doing. : )

I had a relaxing weekend, just managing to do a few chores between all the crocheting. It felt odd to have so little to do so close to Christmas but it's a weird year so I shouldn't be surprised. I need to make sure I get some things done this winter and don't continue in this pre-Christmas mode. Wish me luck.

Week 50 - Yet Another Accident

I started the week shipping my last package to the coast. With packages all on their way, the heat was off so it was time to finish my Christmas prep and take advantage of some warm weather too.

I took Tuesday afternoon off to finish the garage because we were having another freakish warm spell. It was in the mid 60's the second week in December! I finished clearing the boxes of Corelle from the garage on Tuesday and then had lunch with Lorri in the park on Wednesday before heading to Lincoln for an appointment with my shoulder doctor.

The pain I've been experiencing is not my rotator cuff! I was so happy to hear that and left the office with some exercises to do. Yay! I had a couple of hours to kill before meeting Anne and Rene at the gym for swimming so tracked down some candied pineapple for Lorri's Christmas cookies. Swimming was great but alas, I had an accident in my own driveway when I got home.

I had pulled an upholstered chair from the garage and had arranged for it to be picked up with my trash the next week. It was an old chair that I'd used in my rental when I first moved to Wahoo but it had been in my garage since I bought my house 21 years ago. It was probably ~100 years old so was super sturdy. I had put it by the side of the garage on the driveway and somehow my wheel well caught the arm of the chair as I drove into the garage. Because the chair was so substantial, it was unscathed but my car had a big dent that prevented my passenger door from opening and the wall of the garage was shoved back at the bottom with a big dent in the siding. Seriously? This is the 3rd accident I've had in this car, two with inanimate objects! That's more accidents than I've had in the previous 40 years of driving. Grrr....

Needless to say, I didn't sleep well that night and was exhausted at work and then at book club Thursday night. I slept better that night and was ready for the weekend. It was raw and cold on Friday but I ran out for Chinese food for lunch anyway. I had hopes that that would be my only foray outside all weekend.

I neatized on Saturday, shoveled the driveway and then attempted to put up my Christmas tree after dinner. But, of course, my lights were hinky. First only half of them lit then they failed completely. Despite the cold and late hour, I went out to Family Dollar at 8:30 and bought a box of lights. By the time I got them and the beads on the tree, I was tired and went to bed, leaving it for the next day.

On Sunday I was inspired to put up the small bottle brush tree in the front room along with candles in the windows. I pulled the dusty tree from under the basement stairs and in digging around in my Christmas stuff, I found 3 strands of light - 1 still in the box. Sheesh! After the front tree was all set up and looking pretty, I made a batch of strawberry/banana jam (it may be my best jam ever) before tackling the back tree. I decided I needed more lights so undecorated it and started over. I thoroughly enjoyed decorating my tree while watching It's a Wonderful Life, which is my annual tradition. I ended the night with a glass of eggnog, happy that my Christmas preparation was done and I'd actually be able to relax until Christmas. Nice.

Week 49 - Shelves and Packages

Since Dottie's package of hats had taken 8 days to get from Indiana via priority mail, I was determined to get my packages shipped out asap so that was my goal for the week. If that's all I got done, I'd be happy so I charged ahead.

Before I talk about packages, let me show you my shelves! Cody came first thing Monday and he and his partner had the shelves done by lunch. They are absolute perfection and I'm super happy. I cannot wait to get out there and start filling them up. There's pegboard too to hang my garden tools. But now the packages....

Carolyn's package was scheduled for pick up on Monday and between lunch and after work, I had Ginny's ready and scheduled for pick up on Tuesday. Gotta love the USPS schedule a pick up service! 

Tuesday was monthly reports so the morning flew and then I got my grab and go lunch, as usual. I had training scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday so went online after lunch to look up my learners and send them the handouts for the training. When I couldn't find the class listed, I went to the calendar view and found that not only was it that day but it should have already started. I jumped onto the zoom, explained the calendar mix up to my lone student and got started. But not having planned to teach, I was at my coffee table and my laptop wasn't plugged in. Towards the end of the class, it said it had 14% power and I thought that would be enough to finish but NO! It turned off right after that warning and it took 10 minutes to get plugged in, rebooted and back on the zoom. Sheesh! My student was very understanding but what an afternoon! I was too tired to cook dinner so enjoyed the first beer from my advent calendar, which I'd opened up early enough to have it well chilled by day's end, along with cheese and crackers and called it dinner. It was perfect after a trying day.

This is the year of the advent calendar. In addition to beer, I have cheese, chocolate, jam, cat treats and sock yarn. I open all the food ones first thing in the morning so I can chill the beer. I eat the chocolate while I open the others and I save the sock yarn until I move my computer to the coffee table, where the basket of yarn bags lives, for my 10:00 team zoom. It's a fun way to start the day. I'm waiting for a 12 days of Christmas swap package to come so starting the 13th, I'll have that to open too. If it get here by then. I'm hopeful.

On Wednesday, I was joining Anne and Rene for water aerobics at the gym they both joined. They were giving away $500 worth of services for new members so Anne used all of hers to get 33 gift passes for me. How cool is that! The teacher is one we loved from Campus Rec and while I wasn't sure about going to the gym, Rene had already been so called to answer my questions, which allayed my fears. It was great to be in the pool again and it felt completely safe. Since I had nothing ready for dinner and wasn't inspired by anything I drove by in Lincoln, I decided to go to the Eagles Club in Wahoo for burger night, which I've never done despite living in Wahoo for 24 years. Well, no one had a mask on so I went across the street to Dollar General rather than waiting at the bar for my to go order. The burger and fries were OK but nothing special. Done with that.

Anne had picked up the last thing I needed for my sister's package and had handed them over at the gym so I was ready to prep another package. I watched The Grocery Girls over lunch (shrimp, pickles and more advent cheese on crackers) on Thursday while I wrapped, taught all afternoon and then packed everything up and scheduled a pick up for Friday. 3 packages down, 2 to go. I finally did some cooking and made comfort food - corned beef casserole and broccoli - for supper. Delish!

Friday flew by, which is always nice, and I finished a pair of socks that I needed to ship and almost finished another project before bedtime. I finished it first thing Saturday morning and since it was sunny and windy, I soaked it and put it out on the line to dry. It dried so fast that I was able to wrap it up and get package #4 ready, which I handed to the mailman that afternoon. Just one more package to go!

I spent all afternoon Saturday out in the garage and had all the boxes of Corelle that were on the floor and had gotten wet once upon a time so weren't actually boxes anymore, unloaded onto the shelves. I was exhausted and filthy but had made great progress. I came inside for a shower and tea, thinking I might go back out again on Sunday. Well, the weather turned sooner than forecast so it was a good thing I'd done so much because being outside Sunday wasn't an option. 

Since it was a dull, gray, brutally chilly day, I made another batch of jam - blackberry peach. The blackberries were wild ones I'd picked at the side of the highway so were loaded with seeds. For the first time in my decades of jam making, I put them through a sieve to remove the seeds, which was a chore. But now I had another jar of jam for my aunt's package. That was my last package to ship and it would go out Monday, after which I was hoping I could relax and get some Christmas decorating done. My tree was still in the laundry room waiting to be put up so I had hopes for the coming week.

I hope you got all your mailing done. With everyone shipping this year, things are taking much longer (none of the packages I'd shipped Priority had arrived by the end of the week!) so get them mailed. I hope you are not stressing about the holidays. With all the stress already in our lives, who needs that? Stay safe and try to find some joy in your holiday preparations.

Week 48 - A Happy Thanksgiving

It was another week of wacky weather but with only 3 working days and one of those not very worky, the week was a winner.

It was so raw and cold at the beginning of the week that we cancelled Monday Night Knitting. Yeah, that chilly. On Tuesday, Cody, my friend's husband, couldn't do any deck building so came over the measure my garage for the shelves, gave me a quote and said he'd be back the next day. That was perfect because I was going to be gone all day on Wednesday. He even broke up the green toilet, which I'd failed to find a home for despite posting it for free on Facebook Marketplace, and it was in the trash ready to be gone from my life. Nice.

After an early zoom meeting Wednesday morning, I taped a check to the garage wall and headed to campus. Cindy, Lana and I were meeting at Starbuck's at 10:00 then heading into the office to wrap Mary's advent calendar. I'd come up with that idea because Mary is so generous with us every Christmas but the office lunch and white elephant swap wasn't happening this year This year she'd have 24 presents to open and could think of her staff every day. Everyone had chipped in presents so we had to corral and wrap them.

Lana had the time wrong so missed out on yummy peppermint mochas but it was fun to be together again. We wrapped everything up and split up around noon. I picked up my favorite salad at Panera and then headed to Anne's to eat before dropping the presents at Mary's. While I was eating, Ben called to say we only had to work until 3:00, which was nice but I was barely working anyway. After handing over her gifts and the hats I'd made and Anne's mittens, I had a nice chat with Mary (I hadn't seen her since March after all) and left her house right after 3:00. Perfect! And I was excited to go home to my new shelves.

Well, so much for that. There was no sign of Cody and no shelves. I emailed his wife and she said he thought he had told me that he would only come if it rained, which it hadn't. Damn! Oh well. I went inside for dinner and to make pumpkin pie.

Anne was coming over for Thanksgiving but I'd only bought a single turkey breast so it wouldn't have to cook for long. I did a quick clean - bathroom and floors mostly - and had everything ready for dinner at 1:00. The turkey was baked over homemade stuffing, I baked sweet potatoes, one of which exploded in the oven, and Brussels sprouts were the green veg. Anne had requested plain mashed potatoes so I made those too. We ate in the sunshine of the back room then chatted while knitting the afternoon away. I cleaned everything up after Anne left. It was a lovely Thanksgiving despite the pandemic. And I had 3 more days off.

I chatted with Carolyn Friday morning and then the goal for the day was to put together the sock yarn advent calendars I'd planned for Andrea and Lori. Originally I'd planned to do all 24 days but I'd realized 12 days was all I'd manage. By day's end I had them all individually wrapped and ready to go.

Saturday was another warm day so Lori and Andrea were going to come over for a late lunch of Chinese food on my deck. Late because it was warm for the end of November but still only in the 50's so we'd need sun to be warm enough. Lori spent longer walking her dog at the lake than she'd planned so it was nearly 3:00 when she arrived, which meant we only had an hour before the sun went behind the garage, which made it instantly too cold to be outside. But we had fun and it felt like a gift to be seeing friends in person outside. I'll take it!

Aside from chores, Sunday was the start of wrapping and packing. First up was Carolyn's package because it had the longest distance to go. I got it all done and scheduled a pick up for Monday so was pretty pleased with myself. With that done, I got my jam making supplies out and made a batch of orange marmalade with the Seville oranges I'd bought from British Food Depot. It fit exactly into jars with none left but what I licked off the ladle. That tasted great. I will definitely be keeping a jar for myself.

The Thanksgiving break had gone by in a flash but was wonderful and Christmas break is only a month away. With lots to do before then, I'm sure December will fly. I hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving too.