Skip to main content

We Can't Dodge Them Ten

Ten Things I'm Doing Differently to Survive the Holidays

Adding Letters to Cards:We don't do a lot of visiting during the holidays, but the few people we usually go to see are all at high-risk for covid-19. So instead they'll be getting a card in the mail with a letter (hopefully handwritten) from me with something funny to boost their spirits.

Altering Gift-Giving Strategies: This year I'm going to make at least one gift for the immediate family, which is my usual thing. However, I'm not going to do any shopping at all. Instead I'm opting to send E-gift cards to allow everyone on my list to enjoy a little shopping spree after the holidays. This way I avoid any in-store shopping and the forecasted delays for shipping online shopping purchases.

Bake More: In line with my hand made gifts, I'm going to make cookies, cakes or pastries for our immediate neighbors and family friends, and add the recipe to the gift so they can make more if they enjoy it.

Giving Myself a Pass: A big part of why I dislike Christmas so much is the annual guilt trip I take because I never feel like I do enough (this despite the fact that I do all the shopping, gift-wrapping, meals and decorating.) This year I'm excusing myself in advance for not making the holidays perfect. 2020 makes that literally impossible.

Nature Time: I usually don't spend a lot of time outdoors in December, but nature and exercise both boost my spirits. So every day that the weather permits I'd like to take a walk down by the lake or go for a hike in one of the local parks. This will be good for my guy, too.

Nixing Visitors: I'm asking everyone not to visit us in person during the holidays. This is just to avoid the virus more than anything. I will probably have Oliver and his parents over for a few hours on Christmas Day if we're their first stop.

Not Getting a New Dog Yet (Maybe): Within a month or two of losing one of our pups we usually acquire a new one. I asked my family to hold off on that, as I'm still mourning Cole and Skye. We also prefer to get our dogs young to train them, which is usually my responsibility, and dealing with a puppy during the holidays feels like too much. My daughter agreed, but she also reminded me that if we happen to find the right puppy for us during the holidays, we should give it a home. So this one is a maybe.

Scale Down the Celebrations: I always try to make Christmas nice for everyone else. I think this year I'm going to focus instead on keeping everything simple to eliminate fuss and stress. Maybe that will work.

Staying Home: We have an informal tradition of going out to see the town's annual Christmas light-up event. Nixing that to have a light-up night here at our house just for us. If the weather permits we'll have a fire in the backyard so we can relax afterward.

Writing the Holidays: I usually write much less during December so I can deal with the holidays and all they entail, which adds to my personal misery. This year I'm planning to write more. It's my happy place, and I deserve to be happy just like everyone else.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Other Stashes

Along with clearing out the spare bedroom and tidying my office and our guest bedroom, I decided to reorganize some of my stashes. This is all the yarn I have on hand, sorted by color. It looks like a lot, but lately I've been using up a minimum of half a bin every month, so this is approximately a year's supply. All of my solid color cotton perle thread. I go through a lot of this every year, too. I need a container in which I can fit all of it together, but I haven't found the right one yet. I won't show you all of my fabric -- I'm still reorganizing this stash -- but I went through everything and donated two bins of fabric I won't need to the local quilter's guild.

Goodwill Gamble #2 Arrives

My second Goodwill gamble arrived; this is one I paid ten bucks for last month. Just inside the lid was a big roll of plastic mesh that I think is for latchhook work. In the auction listing it looked like fabric to me, so that was unexpected. Someone at the seller's end was nice enough to put a note on this pinned fabric. I'll put on my gloves before I take it out to inspect it. The embroidered green fabric turned out to be 1-1/2 yards of sequinned and three-dimensional designer fabric. I'll guess this cost somewhere between $20.00 to $30.00 a yard, and it's in pristine condition. But here's a shot of everything in the lot, which is mostly crafty odds and ends with a small amount of cotton fabrics, a large amount of synethetic fabrics, and some other surprises. The original owner of these was probably a Catholic school teacher; these beads, crosses and medallions are the kind of rosary kits for kids to make at Sunday school or Bible camp (and s...

Love Means This

Invested in a couple of hand-dyed bundles from one of my favorite fabric artists. This one said "Make me into something for Valentine's Day." So I went for a quilted and embellished tote. I kept thinking about what love means to me as I worked on it. Here's the finished tote. Although I was tempted to embellish with beads and pins, I got sick and only felt well enough to do a little stitching every night. As I worked I thought about how often love seems disappointing to us, especially when it fails to live up to our expectations. But now that I've experienced love in many forms, I can say that it's made me a better person than I might have been without it. Love is a precious thing, and should be appreciated in all its forms. I am very grateful for the love of my guy, my child and my friends who have stuck with me all these years. That's you two, in case you're wondering. :) Also finally found something to do with a ve...