Feeling a bit deflated! The holiday is coming, and I’m woefully unprepared. I actually am not planning on doing anything...just another day as in the past it was always a table full of family and friends. My husband considers Christmas a commercial holiday and so planning pizza for two is not real festive. Yet the kindness of new found friends, and old ones popping up may stir some Christmas cheer after all. For most of 40 years I’d head back home and we’d bake hundreds of cookies to share with all those that stopped by. Taking trips to the garage to refill the plate (Wisconsin is good for cold storage) was not a chore but an honor, and a creative challenge. That memory flooded in on one of my few trips to the store and I found myself buying sugar, flour and butter. Let the merriment begin! I’m ready for eggnog spice balls! 12/15 entry
January 2, 2021
"... I think the thing that has affected me the most is the lack of freedom to fly. As someone who doesn't live in the same country as most of my family or friends, this is the hardest thing to think about. If I need to go somewhere, there is a good chance that I will have to have 14 days of quarantine when I get there, and then 14 more when I get back. So instead of being helpful or being surrounded by family, I will have 14 days totally alone, and basically useless. Instead of being able to fly in for a week, it would be to have over a month of vacation days saved up just so I can be present for the worst case scenario situations in family life. Which means there might never be a last hug or kiss; a last face to face conversation; a last hand to hold. ..."
June 29, 2020