Festive and productive
We had a very productive weekend though at first, I had to coax JRo a bit to bring her from sleeping-in mode to chores and decorating mode. Some coffee may have come into play...
I got a saw from the local hardware store and trimmed down the 9-foot tree that the godparents sent down from the mountain, to fit our humble little living room. I LOVE my saw! and now that I have it, no need to pay the Boy Scouts to pick up our tree after the holidays this time. I can just break it down with my tools into smaller bits and put them in the green bin for curb collection.
First we had to dust, vacuum, mop and in the case of the living room, scrub then shampoo the carpet of mysterious spots we are not blaming on Minnie because Auntie JRo won't have that.
So then we started opening the tubs of gear we put away last year after the holidays and getting the lights onto the tree. We hit a snag when we got them all onto the tree, then discovered that with the addition of a new lighted star for the top this year, our light strings did not have the right connectors to all fit together and then plug into the wall to run. Modern life is so often about having the damn connector that fits, how did that happen?! argh.
I hit three stores, including the hell on Covid Earth of going to Target on a Saturday afternoon near to Christmas, and did not find the brand of light strings nor the connector piece to make this happen. Every single store was cleaned out of light strands. Wound up at a CVS drugstore getting three small strings of lights with blessedly ordinary two-prong connecting ends. The woman in front of me bought ten of the same and told the clerk she'd also been to every store in town looking for light strings that day.
Back home, got alcoholic beverages for self and JRo, took a deep breath and at last got 'er lit. And the tree, too. ;-)
And the stockings were hung by the TV with care...
Next day, JRo got various other bits of garland and joy and decorated the rest of the main rooms of the house, put a mini lighted tree in the dining room window to cheer up the dog walkers and joggers, and adorned our fence with pretty and large ornament balls she found at the dollar store a few years ago.
I got the weekly grocery run done, this week's menus drawn up and a few things pre-cooked for the work week. Saturday night was shrimp dumplings with fried rice, last night was baked salmon with herbed white rice, tonight is lasagna; later in the week we'll have tempura shrimp, buttermilk-brined roast turkey breast with mushroom stuffing and veg, hot-and-sour soup with pork dumplings and tofu, ravioli and finish the week with meat loaf, mashed potatoes and greens. We crave American comfort food in cold weather but I try to balance it with Asian food incorporating more veggies and rice.
I also got my holiday card stash out and made up a spreadsheet of addresses for the first time so that I could just mail merge a set of labels of my own design rather than copying addresses by hand off my phone contacts screen. Did up and printed a year-end recap letter and ordered books of stamps from the USPS website. When those arrive, the cards will be signed and sealed and ready to go out!
Holiday cheer abounds at this household! Oh, I just remembered that I need to find Minnie's holiday collar with the jingle bells...
I got a saw from the local hardware store and trimmed down the 9-foot tree that the godparents sent down from the mountain, to fit our humble little living room. I LOVE my saw! and now that I have it, no need to pay the Boy Scouts to pick up our tree after the holidays this time. I can just break it down with my tools into smaller bits and put them in the green bin for curb collection.
First we had to dust, vacuum, mop and in the case of the living room, scrub then shampoo the carpet of mysterious spots we are not blaming on Minnie because Auntie JRo won't have that.
So then we started opening the tubs of gear we put away last year after the holidays and getting the lights onto the tree. We hit a snag when we got them all onto the tree, then discovered that with the addition of a new lighted star for the top this year, our light strings did not have the right connectors to all fit together and then plug into the wall to run. Modern life is so often about having the damn connector that fits, how did that happen?! argh.
I hit three stores, including the hell on Covid Earth of going to Target on a Saturday afternoon near to Christmas, and did not find the brand of light strings nor the connector piece to make this happen. Every single store was cleaned out of light strands. Wound up at a CVS drugstore getting three small strings of lights with blessedly ordinary two-prong connecting ends. The woman in front of me bought ten of the same and told the clerk she'd also been to every store in town looking for light strings that day.
Back home, got alcoholic beverages for self and JRo, took a deep breath and at last got 'er lit. And the tree, too. ;-)
And the stockings were hung by the TV with care...
Next day, JRo got various other bits of garland and joy and decorated the rest of the main rooms of the house, put a mini lighted tree in the dining room window to cheer up the dog walkers and joggers, and adorned our fence with pretty and large ornament balls she found at the dollar store a few years ago.
I got the weekly grocery run done, this week's menus drawn up and a few things pre-cooked for the work week. Saturday night was shrimp dumplings with fried rice, last night was baked salmon with herbed white rice, tonight is lasagna; later in the week we'll have tempura shrimp, buttermilk-brined roast turkey breast with mushroom stuffing and veg, hot-and-sour soup with pork dumplings and tofu, ravioli and finish the week with meat loaf, mashed potatoes and greens. We crave American comfort food in cold weather but I try to balance it with Asian food incorporating more veggies and rice.
I also got my holiday card stash out and made up a spreadsheet of addresses for the first time so that I could just mail merge a set of labels of my own design rather than copying addresses by hand off my phone contacts screen. Did up and printed a year-end recap letter and ordered books of stamps from the USPS website. When those arrive, the cards will be signed and sealed and ready to go out!
Holiday cheer abounds at this household! Oh, I just remembered that I need to find Minnie's holiday collar with the jingle bells...