A year or two ago, DIL took a favorite photo of Jim and a compilation of other photos and did a beautiful pen sketch for hubby as a gift.
She is a very talented artist and wanted to do something special for him. He loves the gift and it hangs on the siding wall of the steps to the loft in our living room.
In August, right at his birthday, hubby made the very difficult decision due to health issues to sell his beloved Harley and give up his “Zen” riding as he called it. In the years since he learned to ride, two months after his 70th birthday, he had collected patches, buttons, poker chips, and pins that never made it onto the iconic leather vest and as he was no longer riding, a vest he wouldn’t wear wasn’t an option.
I had an idea as a gift for him. It isn’t a surprise, but done out of love as part of his Christmas. The photo that was used as the focus of DIL’s sketch was printed as an 8 X 10, his license plate from the HD was saved, and the idea came to fruition. A large frame, some black cotton fabric, a piece of corrugated material for the pins to stick into and it was all put together with patches and other treasures.
Yesterday after the snowy morning, followed by a bit of rain, then more flurries, we drove the dozen miles to Joe’s Tree Farm and found a tree for the house. About the time we got home with it, the temperature that only got up to 36 f started falling. The tree was put in the stand and watered, hubby built a fire in the fireplace, I got a pot of stew started using left over pot roast and it’s gravy, made myself a mug of hot cocoa, and set to work decorating the tree. Putting the tree up, the huge Starfish, we got on our first cruise about 7 years ago, on as a tree topper, lights on and lit didn’t bother me. As soon as I opened the bin of ornaments, the history of our life together, I just froze, tears welled up and I didn’t want to continue. Beginning in 1977, our first shared Christmas, we purchased an ornament for our “Charlie Brown” tree. Each year, another ornament was added. Years we had a new baby in the house, there was a Baby’s First as well as the annual Hallmark ornament. At some point, the ornaments came from craft shows, or if we took a vacation and saw an appropriate token that could be the ornament, we added that and all are dated. There is a ceramic bell from Mexico, several carved/turned wood, pottery, and painted gourd ones. There are a few given us by others that have significance. As I brought them out, I cried more at the loss of family members, the isolation from our children and grandchildren. The tree is up, the house is decorated except for hanging two blown glass ones, that require some ribbon.
It isn’t getting easier. There have been 53 cases of Covid in our rural area in the past week, that is 15% of the cases since the pandemic began and in just 7 days. A neighbor told us yesterday that he had had it a few weeks ago, yet we still are seeing few masks. We waited to get the tree on a week day to avoid a crowded situation at the farm and the attendant that cut our tree said Sunday they had the lot full and a field adjacent as an overflow parking lot. We were one of three cars today, but two women arrived back from cutting their own tree as we arrived and without masks, entered the shop and stayed in there until their tree was brought in from the field, tied, and labelled. We stayed out in the cold to avoid them until our tree was ready for us to pay. There was no consideration of others, the older woman stayed near where we needed to be to pay for our tree.
We avoid going in any building we can. The online grocery order picked up Sunday was lacking several items from the list. There was no notice that the items weren’t available and we didn’t pay for them, but it means I will have to go in the grocer to get them. The curbside is nice, but certainly not perfect. I am having emotional burnout, but I can’t become complacent.
Covid has caused the Noel Nights event at Wilderness Road Regional Museum to be cancelled. I am sad that I won’t be able to vend, but feel bad for the Museum as this is a fund raiser for them. I am hoping that the Program Director who may have been exposed stays well. If you are still shopping for gifts, if you favorite an item in my shop, you will receive a 20% off coupon, many of the items ship free, there are knit and woven garments and accessories, salves, beard oils, yarn, and more. Check it out.
Last weekend, I put the chain saw carved Santa and Snowman on the front porch, hung the Christmas garden banner by the stoop, brought the antique sled out of the garage and made a wreath to hang on it. On our walk, I found a hemlock branch in the road, probably broken off by the Lodge pick up truck, so I brought it home. I would never cut any greenery in the conservancy, but it was already broken and on the ground. I had made a grapevine wreath from the grapevine prunings and used it as the base. Tied on the hemlock sprigs, a few pinecones from the basket full I have gathered over the years, a couple of teasels and a bow.
Over the years, I have accumulated a lot of quilted, cross stitched, and other handmade ornaments, most made by my sister in law, some by my stepmom and before we sold our coast house and moved to the mountains, they were lovingly hung on a “feather tree” that was about 5 feet tall, in our den, the main Christmas tree in the living room. That tree did not move with us and for a couple of years, they were strung on greenery roping along the loft railing, but that meant taking them down, making sure all were found. A few years ago, I purchased a huge artificial green wreath and attached all of those ornaments to it. Each year it is enclosed in a large plastic bag and hung in a storage closet in the basement and brought out for the month of December.
Last night, I went down and brought it up to hang from the loft. There are large bows with 6″ jingle bells that hang at the ends of the rail and at the bottom of the stairs.
This morning it was too cold to do anything beyond necessary animal chores.
So during my morning alone time, I brought out crate after crate of Santas, Gnomes, Nutcrackers, and Snowmen. The tiny village, and the miniature tree that used to adorn my office before I retired, and decorated the inside of the house too.
Window sills, bookcases, the top of the piano, the top of the treadle sewing machine, and the mantel are all festively decorated. Next week, we will go to the tree lot and pick out a tree, not a big one, but a tree for the house as well.
This afternoon, all of the remaining gifts were wrapped, shipping boxes broken down for recycle or to use in the garden, and the entire downstairs vacuumed yet again, a daily chore.
Yesterday, more salves were made, packaged and sealed. Guest soaps bagged in twos, beard oil labels that were damaged last year at the Holiday market when my table blew over were re printed and the damaged ones replaced and clip on signs made for the baskets that will go to the museum for the Noel Nights craft honor system sale. Yarn and some knits checked for labels and prices and all of it packed in a bin to take over there in about 10 days.
As we are still eating turkey from Thanksgiving, we decided that Christmas dinner for two is going to be a nice roast and hubby likes Country ham, so there will be some of that too. That is a change from 43 years worth of tradition, but it will just be the two of us this year.
I’m trying hard to be in the spirit of Christmas, but it is difficult this year. Maybe the decorations and an occasional Christmas CD will get me in the mood.
The room where I organize the gifts by family prior to wrapping and where I have the batches of soap curing is cleaned up. With the gifts wrapped and sorted into “family” bags or shipped off via UPS, the wrapping station is put away. That is where most of the shipping boxes were too, awaiting use if necessary and now broken down. Only the table with racks of soap are still out, with the ceiling fan on medium to help cure the soap more quickly. The bands are all printed and ready to apply when the bars are dry enough. The decorating put me in a cleaning mood too and kitchen counters were decluttered and wiped down, some of the open shelves rearranged to look more appealing. The basket of red peppers that fully dried without ever getting strung was emptied into a half gallon jar and placed with the “cooking, kitchen” Santa on a clean countertop. It looks quite festive.
