Christmas 2022

This Christmas started with one kufuffle after another.

Family Christmas Dinner – huge snow storm buries my brother so he & his family can’t some down on Christmas Eve Eve for our family dinner. Only time of the year we get all 13+ of us together because of distance

Brunch – That didn’t happen. I had suggested to my parents & Mom agreed that we were going to have brunch when I got up in the late morning. I get up, go up with my cinnamon buns in hand.. I find dirty breakfast dishes. They are without me, but the atebmy cinnamon buns.. while I had to make myself something besides just cinnamon buns.

Pictures – We did family pj pictures This is something my Sister’s and brother’s families each do. Mom insisted we do it too. (My sister nor my bother did it). She complained when I only took two pictures, but the first one was a keeper.

Turnip – When I’m doing something new I need completely clear step by step instructions. Which is why I’m great with recipes. I’ve never made turnip for Christmas dinner. I got told throw turnip into a pot & put it on the stove. After softens add butter brown sugar. That was the totally of instruction I was given. Take 1. I toss the turnip & only turnip in the pot I figure I was guessing the turnip softened on its own. Well, not really. Take 2. I put the damn stuff in a pot with water this time, to boil – finally clued into that. But they burned in only a few short minutes. Take 3. Third time’s the charm right? Well, this time with strict adult supervision & instruction I was finally successful under the watchful eye of my BiL & niece..

Dessert – I literally forgot to bake it.. Both the apple crisp & pie. Luckily the pumpkin pie was pre baked

BUT This Christmas was on blessing after another.

Family – Everyone is safe, health & whole. Except for Uncle Barry who passed just before the holiday.

Food – We were blessed to have not one, but two Christmas dinners (& I got ac YE one too)… With 2 kinds of meat, multiple vegetables, potatoes, buns, dessert and a ton of leftovers

Memories – Good memories are made over the holidays. My nephew who lost it trying to play Cards Against Humanity. My VR skills where I used the light sabers on my sister’s tv tables. The first bottle of alcohol for Christmas from anyone & it’s the 21yo niece..

Learning – Learning new skills, specifically how to make, and not make turnip for Christmas dinner.

Family Time – The opportunity to spend time with the family you can see. Even tho he & his family were unable to make it, they were missed & they still will get their Christmas cookies!

Christmas Gifts – I’m one of these people whole, while like to receive gifts, it’s the giving of them that unlike most. Now I did very much appreciate when I did get – weighted blanket, electrical blanket, ton of clothes, alcohol, home made scarf & hat with matching scarf for Lilly (so cute), & a favourite Aunt mug. I asked my nephew if he really thought that & he said yes, but yer my only aunt. So my sister & I start rhyming off the names of the rest of his aunts. He clarifies, only biologically related aunt, which is technically true.

As always, everyone loved what it got them. Two were too big (one fit me so that was a bonus for me), and resulted in quality shopping time with my sister getting her clothes worth 1½ times, almost, for the budget. & Then the cookies. Esp when my one neice realized that her cookies were gluten-free & still baked by me.

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So while there were stupid things, annoying things & uncontrollable weather, we are still blessed.

Christmas Cookies

Every year for Christmas, I bake cookies to give to friends and family for gifts. To make it easy on myself, I buy some of the dough pre-made. This also allows for a little more variety than if I just made six batches of peanut butter cookies or sugar cookies.

I tried something different this year. Yes, I still bought the pre-mix dough and I also still mixed up some dough. What was different this year is that I only baked the cookies that I needed as I needed them. Previous years I would bake all the cookies and then freezing them all.

While this does take more time, it has been spread out over multiple days. It limits doing repetitive and eventually very painful actions for hours & hours on end. Plus, I’m also not spending one day constantly baking

The other benefit is that for most people, the cookies are fresh – straight from the oven almost in most cases..

Unfortunately, I did not see my brother’s family this year due to a really bad storm the day before our family dinner. He was still digging out with intermittent power. His eldest god to school near me, so I will send the family’s cookies home with her after the holiday break. Until then, they are frozen cuz dough only remains good for a limited period of time.

The only other ones that were baked & frozen were the gluten free ones for my neice’s & SiL’s gluten intolerances. That was done for two reasons. First to ensure that all the gluten-free products were baked on a gluten-free surface and not switching between gluten-free and regular cookies. Second to keep all the gluten-free cookies together. I didn’t want to get them mixed up.

Christmas Is Busy For Me

Personally, for me, Christmas is probably the busiest time of year. Plus with personal issues that I’ve been having with different relationships, I haven’t been able to focus here very much.. so my apologies for not posting… Again…

Just to give you an idea. Monday was dinner out with a friend I haven’t seen in a coons ahe. Tuesday I have errands all afternoon & a cub planning meeting in the evening.. Wednesday is the Cub year end meeting, a social gathering & baking both before & after those. Thutsday I have to organize the baking, getting some ready for me to post as well as for friends this weekend. In the evening, I’m off to my sister’s for hair & a walk with the dogs. Friday, weather permitting, I’m getting the headlight fixed then I’m heading out for a social event with out-of-town friends I have not seen since Labour Day. Saturday is a coffee date (Whoo hoo!!) Sunday is soccer.. I still need to do groceries: normal groceries, Christmas dinner groceries, cookie baking groceries.. then, more baking as our family Christmas is on the 23rd.. plus wrapping presents for Mom, Dad, Sister & her family & a friend who I exchange with for more than just cookies..

So, yeah . Busy….

And I’m probably missing stuff in the schedule..

Plus I need to fit in exercise, a hot tub or two or 6, plus other personal self care & put up my second tree.. & make some ornaments..

So, ALOT goes on a Christmas..

Post-Christmas Crash 2020

Every year the inevitable happens. I manage decently enough getting ready for Christmas, pacing myself trying not to overdo it. Every year I end up failing miserably before the holidays end.

Some years I’ve managed to get through Christmas Day with a nap and crash afterwards. . Some years I’ve actually had to postpone Christmas from the morning to the afternoon and eventually this became consistent as I really get up any day before noon. I’ve even had two years where I didn’t do Christmas with my family or anyone just because my crash hit before the holiday.

The most common reaction is to hit my wall on Christmas Day in the evening… After I get back from wherever I’ve been.. Fortunately, with the improvement of my Fibro over the last almost 5 years, that is shifting.. Crashes are less severe and don’t typically last for week or more on end..

This year, I did well! Before you say that’s it cuz of covid & no one did anything, it’s not true. Christmas this year is not *that* different.

As per the norm, I baked cookies. I give these his gifts to friends, family & my pain physician. It’s not uncommon for me to purchase premade dough however this year I made two different types of cookies from scratch. I have one of those cookies I ended up making up 4 batches. I don’t know how many cookies I made in total but in the end I had enough for two’s cookie swaps with my Cub packs, 3 small baggies, of a half dozen, 8 larger bags of a baker dozen, & 5large bags for almost 2 dozen cookies. I also did up one package of two dozen Brier Rabbit cookies (that’s the recipe I made for of) for a friend of mine who specifically likes that type of cookie.. After all that, I still had some left over.. That’s almost 400 cookies this year.

Cookies From My Cubs

As I usually do, I also did my Christmas shopping in person. I don’t like doing a lot of shopping online unless I know exactly what it is like books. So I do gifts for my sister and her family and my parents every year as well as select friends including my best friend and her family This year I also got a few things for my brother’s family beyond cookies.. Plus stocking stuffers for my Mom and Dad.. So gifts for about 20 people this year.

Because of COVID my deliveries have been different this year.. but I have made them and have had short safe visits with friends. I stopped at my 2nd bff’s on Christmas Eve Day and we had a short safe visit. . Christmas Day was spent with my parents followed by a social distanced gift exchange with my Sister’s family. Afterwards, I stopped by another friend’s later on also for a short safe visit to exchange small gifts. Come Boxing Day, I had a longer, yet still safe visit with my BFF & her family. Finally, I saw another friend that evening and gave him his cookies & gifts..

So Boxing Day evening I hit my wall (My Wile E Coyote IG post shows it well). When I got home about 8:30, I crawled into bed & slept. I ended up overheating in my sleep but you can read more about that here.. Otherwise for the next 24 hours, I slept, only getting up so myself & Lilly could use the facilities and to feed her.

Since then my pain levels have been up and so has my fatigue.. I’ve done very little over this last week. I had a Cub Scout planning meeting on the 27th via Zoom. I’ve had a visit or 2 with Mom & Dad as they only live upstairs.. I fixed a mask, having to replace the elastic & add a third layer. I have watched TV, I have player video games on my phone & I’ve slept.

Do I consider myself bedridden? No.. I’m able to function.. I can get up & take the dog out & Ake myself some food and do liw energy activities. So why am I not doing more? Cuz if I do things will go downhill.. Right now I’m just keeping the course steady so that my body can rest, relax, recuperate and heal..