Christmas at the Beach

Although this was our very first Christmas alone as empty nesters, we decided not to spend it moping around the house. Instead we went to the beach.

There wasn't a cloud in the sky, and the temperature hovered around 72F with a light breeze blowing. Perfect weather. My guy and I both grew up by the beach; he was an avid surfer, too. I just love the beach. I would rather go to the beach than any other place on the planet, including Paris.

This guy was one of the few birds willing to pose for me. We brought our lunch with us, and had it while sitting on a bench by the boardwalk so we could watch the waves and the people.

We weren't the only non-traditionalists; families were everywhere building sandcastles with their kids. I know most of them were tourists staying at local hotels, but it was nice to see that.

We walked about two miles down the beach (I wish my legs were this long) before we headed back home. Beautiful day; beautiful way to spend my least favorite holiday. I feel a new tradition coming on now.

Comments

nightsmusic said…

See? This is a time to start something new! Our first Christmas alone again, we slept in, had a light breakfast, and pretty much just enjoyed the peace and quiet of not having to be anywhere and not having to entertain anyone. It was wonderful. Yesterday, we did pretty much the same thing except we had unusually warm weather at 38 degrees and it rained much of the day. I wish it had been snow. But we enjoyed the fire, had leftovers from Christmas eve for dinner, didn't do anything exciting and just enjoyed each other's company. It was nice.

December 26, 2021 at 9:20 AM

Maria Zannini said…

We took the day off on Christmas, but it was back to work on the 26th. We're in the middle of a bathroom remodel that seems to be going on forever. We're also trying to figure out where a leak is coming from outside. I think we narrowed it down. We kept digging holes and shutting valves until we found one that kept leaking. Now we have to dig out the surrounding area and replace the faulty pipe.

I hope we can be done with both within the first week of the year. I know Greg would much rather be at the beach.

December 27, 2021 at 5:37 AM

Downsizing

This was my fabric stash once I sorted everything -- 22 full bins. I spent a day taking out and boxing up what I could part with, with the goal of trying to reduce it by half, so I'd have 11 bins. I was very strict with myself, and removed everything that for one reason or another I was sure I wouldn't be able to use. This is what I ended up with -- 12 bins of fabric that I'm keeping. It's not quite half, but close enough. Half of what I took out went to a local quilter friend, a school and Goodwill. These four tightly-packed bins will be going to the local quilting guild once I make arrangements with them for a drop-off place. I am relieved and a little sad and now determined to control my impulses to thrift more fabric. I don't want to do this again, so until I use up six bins, I can't for any reason bring any new fabric into the house.

In Progress

I promised myself I would show you the good, bad and ugly of my cleaning this year. This is what it looks like when you dump thirty years' worth of stashed fabric on the floor -- and oy, what a pain in the butt to pick up again! This is what it looks like after it's been sorted, folded and placed in containers, which took me about a week. Now the hard part is to downsize my stash by at least half, I think (that's my goal, anyway.) I've already e-mailed the president of the local quilting guild, a local friend who is a quilter, and a public school art teacher I know to see if I can donate some of the excess to them. The rest will go to Goodwill. Already I've reduced my vintage textiles from two bins to one, and my scraps from three bins to one. It's probably the hardest clean-out I've done, which is why I saved it until last. I know I have too much fabric, more than I can use in my lifetime -- but at the same time, I love it. So I have to

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.

Valerean

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