Before, During, and After

So once I got home from Binghamton, the goal was to make it through the short week and enjoy Thanksgiving to the fullest.  It was much harder than it should have been!  Three days doesn't seem like much, but I guess my brain was SO ready for a break that the week felt like an eternity!  Luckily we had a couple fun things on Tuesday to spice things up!  

During the afternoon, I was able to log into the live feed of my godson Mason's adoption finalization!  I was on a work meeting at the time so I was doing my best to keep an ear open on the other meeting while turning my camera off so they couldn't see my goofy faces and excessive smiling!  I didn't talk on the finalization one for fear of not hearing the other meeting, but it was so fun to be a part of it.  Mason's uncle was on the meeting as well, and both grandparents were in person.  It was cute to hear Mason talking in the background, and he had his baby dinosaurs (that I gave him!) with him.  I accidentally took a screen shot of the proceedings while I was trying to get my phone set up, and I'm glad I did because it was fun to capture the moment--everyone happened to be smiling at that moment, too!  I won't post it just in case there are privacy issues, but it was so great to finally get legal confirmation of what everyone knew was the right thing for over two years!  He was meant to be a part of that family, and now it's official.  And I am so honored that I was able to attend and especially to be a part of his life.  I'm just so happy for them all.

Tuesday night was Jacob's first varsity basketball scrimmage.  It was a series of five short games, but he ended up doing really well.  He had 13 points and should have had two more because he got called for a travel on a shot he made that definitely was not a travel--we watched the video repeatedly and we think there was just a hesitation (but no foot movement) that tricked the ref's eye.  It was great to see him out there and fit in at the varsity level just fine.

I ended up taking a half day Wednesday.  I was so beat that I headed to the basement couch with the DVD of one of my guilty-pleasure movies, Bed of Roses.  I just laid there, watched it, and relaxed, and it was definitely good for the soul!  Originally we were supposed to go to Buffalo that night for an annual (pre-COVID, at least) gathering to honor Craig's uncle who passed eight years ago, but that ended up not happening so we stayed home that night and went to Thanksgiving Eve church instead.  I spent part of the evening after that making a cookie cake for Craig.  His family wanted to sing to him on Thanksgiving in advance of his impending 50th birthday (since he has games every weekend, it'll be hard to do anything more), and somehow it turned into me making a cookie cake for him.  That was fine with me--luckily it's pretty easy.  I decorated it the next morning before we left.

Not my best work, but lettering never will be!

Thanksgiving was different this year with my parents being on vacation, but we had plenty of food and family to fill the day anyway.  I missed them, of course, but it was certainly the next best thing.  I wish I could say it was easier on the belly to just do one meal, but it was not!  We arrived in time for the Bills game and spent the afternoon snacking on charcuterie, fruit, and fried Buffalo chicken pierogies.  The game was close and very stressful, especially at the end--the Bills won on a last-second field goal--so that was exciting but definitely prompted the wine to come out!  We had a fabulous dinner with quite the crowd--Craig's parents, brother, his wife, their four kids, two significant others, our sister-in-law's parents, and her sister, her husband and their two kids.  Twenty people in total, stretching from the kitchen to the middle of the living room!  

In case you wondered what a table for 20 looks like!

I remarked to Craig's mom as we all settled in, "Remember when we all fit in the dining room?" and she chuckled.  Once upon a time, while it was tight, our core group ate in the dining room for a few years.  Nowadays it's almost always a crowd!  And I think there were three people that bowed out near the end, so it could have been even more.  So much food--two turkeys, two types of stuffing, potatoes, gravy, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, two types of biscuits, two types of cranberries, roasted veggies, corn, and many pies, plus the cookie cake.  It was insane, but all very good!  We sang "Happy Birthday" to Craig at the end.

Blurry, but you get the idea.

It took a while to digest, and admittedly after all the fun chatter all day, by about 8pm I was ready to simply collapse on the couch with my phone!  But eventually we got moving and arrived home around 10pm.  It was pretty much right to bed for everyone.

On Friday Craig had to go into work, and then to Canada later in the day and overnight.  I tried to work up the energy to undecorate from fall and try to get Christmas started.  It's always so hard because it's such a process.  Take down the fall stuff and pack that away.  Dust certain surfaces.  Move the toys to make a path to move the recliner, to then make room to move the big chair, which finally makes room for the tree.  I generally bring the tree up first, just to have something with lights on that can be festive while I'm working on the rest of the decorations.  Ornaments come later, but that's the beauty of a pre-lit tree!  I did add garland since I finally found (after two years) smaller gold garland that seemed like it would match the three strings I had from my grandma's house, and sure enough, it was almost a perfect match!  I also realized I bought another tree skirt last year for super cheap so we could enjoy the blue lights on our tree without it going all patriotic with the red tree skirt, so I put that down as well.  

I did manage to get up my little themed tree on Friday, too.  That one is pretty simple because I set aside the ornaments as I pack up the big tree the previous year.  All that are going into next year's theme get packed separately so it's pretty easy to just put up the tree (which used to seem like such a task, branch by branch, and seems so easy now), add some lights and garland, then pop the ornaments into place.  I think it's usually about 2-3 dozen.  Next year I finally get back into the theme that started it all--all angels, most of which are from my mom's annual gift to me.  Year 2 was all Peanuts ornaments, and Year 3 was sports.  This year I did all handmade or school-based ornaments.  It does not include fancy crafty handmade ones--admittedly my mom has made or bought a lot of those for me over the years--but rather ones I made as a kid, ones my kids have made over the years, or ones that originated from school (like the adorable gifts I got in Kindergarten and first grade from my teachers that included my school picture--a salt dough bear and a cute painted chalkboard--or the Oriental Trading-esque gingerbread man with Carter's head from 2nd grade).  There's a perler bead star I made, a salt crystal one we made at home as a science experiment a number of years back, some cinnamon applesauce ones from various sources, and even a couple that I think were just sweet homemade ones from a co-worker years ago as a random gift.  One of my sentimental favorites is from when my grandma did a craft day for the cousins and we made ornaments with her supplies.  Mine uses a tiny wooden crate, a little red cup filled with a sprig of fake evergreen and a couple berry picks, accented with some red tinsel ribbon and a lace flower on the outside of the crate.  That day was so much fun and that ornament makes me smile.  The decor is a good mix of me and the kids, and I did this theme--and to some degree all of the themes--because it made it easier to include every single ornament, including ones that might not make the cut on the main tree during normal years.  I love that little tree because I'm convinced it was my Charlie Brown Christmas tree miracle.  You know how the sad tree at the end of Charlie Brown Christmas turns into a beautiful tree?  I got that tree for about $20 in 2000, thinking it would be a scrawny mess compared to the tree I grew up with.  It looked just good enough in the store but I knew it would be a downgrade.  I got it just so I could have a tree in my first apartment.  I added white lights, red bows, and dollar store silver beaded garland, and it was perfect.  It turns out it's of higher quality than trees quadruple its cost nowadays--I've never seen a tree or deal like that since and sometimes wonder if it's cheapness was a Christmas miracle.  It was my tree for seven years after that before getting replaced with our previous pre-lit tree.  The top is maybe a little skinnier than would be ideal, but it has continued to fulfill its destiny as my theme tree!

Saturday was very slow going to get the rest of the decorations up.  I knew I needed to get in a workout that morning, which I did, but that meant I didn't start on decorations until after a late-ish lunch.  I worked through each bin slowly, trying to place the obvious stuff (stockings, ornaments for the ficus tree, lighted wreath and stair garland, our Peanuts and Playmobil setups) and setting the rest on the dining room table to be distributed as I started filling in blanks around the house.  I crapped out somewhere in the middle, feeling uninspired and tired, like nothing worked together.  We grabbed some takeout for dinner and over the course of the evening I started working through the rest.  I changed some things around from my usual setup, and I'm happy with everything except the mantel, but that's probably fine too...though if I see anything while shopping, I'll keep it in mind.  I love my little display of nativity scenes on a dining room shelf, and the glass trees I got last year work well on my buffet. 

L to R - Peanuts nativity ornaments, the ceramic one I painted last year, a Precious Moments one (in the front) that's like a tea set (it used to be my mom's), my grandma's nativity, a plate we received as a wedding gift, and a little Peanuts nativity that plays music.

The two shorter white trees are sparkly glass and used to be my grandma's.  The rest are Target.  But it works so well as a group!

By the end of Saturday, the only thing that wasn't done was the big tree.  That was my task for Sunday, and once again it took a while to get started, but I worked through it over the afternoon and evening before finishing up--hundreds of ornaments later.  I'm relieved to have everything done except my window clings, and now I can enjoy it for a month and a half!

Monday was a rough re-entry after the holiday.  I was extra tired and had a headache most of the day, and it was made worse by having to go into the office.  I felt just off enough that by the end of the day I was almost convinced I had been exposed to COVID because my symptoms seemed so similar to how I felt earlier in the year when I was exposed but never officially caught it.  But I woke up feeling much better on Tuesday.  Working from home probably helped.  It's amazing how much easier those days feel now.

On Tuesday night, Jacob had his first official varsity game.  It was a little emotional seeing him run out there for warmups getting cheered on by classmates and parents--the culmination of a lot of hard work.  It brought back memories of my time watching my cousins and brother play varsity more than 30 years ago.  We spent almost every Tuesday and Friday night at games (at least until I started skipping to watch hockey), and now it's my own kid out there.  I wish I had more perspective on how these games compare to those games, but it's pretty awesome and mind-blowing.  I'm excited for the season and hoping he gets a fair shot.  The first game was quite a back-and-forth affair.  Jacob played for a good portion of the second quarter but unfortunately missed both his shots and never got back in.  The coach didn't really manage his bench very well and never subbed anyone in the second half, which led to a bunch of tired players and a cold bench that wasn't ready to go into such a high tempo game.  It was a bummer, especially because they only lost by three.  It would have been nice to get someone out there that can hit some threes (ahem), but hopefully the trust will come.  Jacob's old coach from the spring, whose son also plays on this team, used to be an assistant coach but wasn't asked back this year.  I think he and Craig might be keeping each other sane, because they can commiserate about what the coach is missing and how Jacob might be helpful to the team.  Back at it Thursday.

Who is that big kid?

And now it's officially December and the real countdown to Christmas begins.  With an early Thanksgiving it feels like we had a bonus week before the "real deal" - starting our Advent Calendars and the rest of the full-on Christmas sprint.  I will regret not doing more during this bonus week, I'm sure.  I should have probably bought more gifts and done more research, but alas, I'm lucky I got done what I got done.  I'm not sure what's filled up the week so much but I know I've felt busy and tired by the end of the night!  As it was yesterday morning I hurriedly changed over my car CDs to my Christmas ones right before I left the house because I kept forgetting to do it in the evenings.  I didn't want to let much more time pass because it's hard enough to get a couple full rounds of my Christmas music in as it is.  

I've realized that two nights of basketball games per week is going to take some adjusting--for the best possible reason, mind you--but that I need to try to be a bit more productive on non-game nights to compensate.  This is not the best time of year for that kind of adjustment, but we'll see how it goes.  I'm trying to stay positive and chip away at my list when I can, but I know that luxury will pass quickly and panic will set in soon enough.  Part of me is excited and part of me is worried that I feel a little numb this year.  Certain things aren't hitting me the same way they usually do and the jury's still out on why.  Maybe it's all part of the same kind of funk I had a couple weeks ago, or maybe the pandemic just wore me down.  I guess we'll see.  Maybe I just need a little snow, a few more Christmas songs, and a little downtime in front of the tree.   Let's hope anyway...