Alright, Thanksgiving has been done. Several days of time spent with Capt's family and some friends, and a lot of food. I am hoping, for her sake, his mother decides to pass the tradition on to someone else. She works hard and deserves, at her age, to not do it. Not that I don't appreciate it, she's a lovely woman and does a phenomenal job, but....it's time to let someone else do it. Capt, possibly, fried his last turkeys and will be, hopefully, be passing those responsibilities on to a younger person. If he's relieved of the turkey job then we may do our own thing elsewhere for Thanksgiving.
So now it's on to Christmas. I dug out a couple of red sweaters that need to be washed and dried to get 11 months of packed-away wrinkles out, and with a couple of red plaid skirts and some boots, will serve as a panoply of Holiday Accoutrement. Recently I acquired a nice women's fedora, and perhaps something festive will go on that as well. Who knows. All this is mood-dependent.
As for household decor, also mood-dependent. A long long time ago, when household income was fairly tight, I had the idea that our young children could pick out a mug, one of those shaped like a Santa Claus head, to give me as a Christmas gift. Those mugs are cheerful, ubiquitous, and just the sort of thing a young child would choose for a parent. It became an annual thing and now I've got a collection of about 40 of them, ranging from Dollar Tree finds to vintage ones from Ebay, to a couple of super fancy Fitz and Floyd offerings. All are precious to me because of the meaning behind them. They get scattered throughout the house, and with the exception of the very old ones, are available for hot chocolate or coffee to whomever wants to use one. If one gets broken, it gets glued back together and relegated to the top of the bathroom cabinets, or for use holding measuring spoons.
Capt, having been in the wood products industry for many years, prefers not to use a live tree, so we have a pretty good fake one that may or may not see the light of day. Between the 2 of us we have some cute ocean and travel themed ornaments, all with memories attached from assorted travels. When the kids were all gone, and it was just me, I retired all the ornaments from the years past. Eventually when they have their own families, I will let them go through and choose what they want, and the rest will go back into storage for descendants to find and use. Starting over with a new life also means starting over with a new Christmas tree, and new traditions. I don't mind, it feels like the right thing to do.
Our house is set way back off the road, and no one sees it but us. Because of this, I don't mess with lights on the roof or garlands on the porch rails. I suppose if we traveled during the holiday, and had the camper parked somewhere public like an RV park, I'd decorate in a fun way, but we haven't done that thus far. Maybe one day. Not today.
One of the ways I handle the whole gift-thing is to make stuff. We have 3 grandkids who are young enough to still get a big kick out of opening gifts on Christmas morning, so they'll get something, but everyone else is going to get a box of handmade yummies that I've been working on since July. A few boxes of Mason jars, and a lot of work in front of a stove or a dehydrator has resulted in a bunch of goodies to load into boxes and deliver to people who can get their own sweaters and socks if they need them. I have no expectations of anything more than a hug and a phone call, and perhaps a tasty meal fixed by Capt. Hopefully involving something beefy.
Anyway, that's all I've got to say about that right now.
No comments:
Post a Comment