Life of Wry

Hi. Been a long time, how’re y’all doing?

So, this is random. Not the way I intended to return to blogging, but sometimes you just jump in.

Actually, I never just jump in, or, if I do, it’s rare. Rather, I am too much of a fussy, process-oriented planner for that. Meaning, in this context: planning how I’ll start up blogging again; how I’ll back-fill all I’ve skipped in 2021; whether I’ll do it chronologically or by event; whether it’ll just be a photo with captions or a full-on, detailed summary; how far back will I go (all of the ones I’ve missed, or just the key ones). That kind of planning. You can’t just jump in without a plan of attack. You certainly can’t just jump in cold without some forewarning or explanation. And you can’t be gone for half a year and come in with something trivial, something wholly unimportant (let’s be real, most of my blog is small-ball stuff), right smack out of the blue. I mean, you can’t do any of that!

But I am. Random. Yeah. I just feeling like writing and don’t want to wait around for a plan. So, here goes.

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I noticed the quince in the front yard is blooming. I’m not sure if that’s a record, but it’s definitely early. I’m sure I’ve written in the past about the shock of early spring, how it’s now totally coming in January around here.. but I’ll have to look back to see if January 12 for the flowering quince is a record.

Early spring comes at a fantastic time, though, I must say, because I achieved holiday season closure today (that would be holidays = Thanksgiving and Christmas), which means only one thing: time to get on with the new year! Move on to brightness and lightness and freshness and order, and a refreshing absence of red-green-sparkly-illuminated clutter (Truth: not total TOTAL Christmas closure as I still have a 2022 calendar to design-order-send to a small bunch of family members, and if I’m being full disclosure, there are a couple people whose Christmas notes deserve a response, but those are discreet things and I’m deciding they don’t warrant a holding up of the jolly Christmas Is Over celebration.)

I’ll admit — even as I feel, each and every year, cynical about the approaching holiday season — that I love how our house transforms during the holidays. Especially cozy this year because of dark, cold and very inclement weather for nearly two whole months. But holy cow… putting it all away is cause for delirious happy dancing, and looking back and reflecting on how wonderful it all was: bonus!!

Because, god. This was a season for the record books. I am just going to have to pat myself on the back for a job well done from start to ever-lovin’ finish.

The 30-thousand foot view is a simple proposition: Peter, brothers, significant others here for Thanksgiving. Check. Peter and Maya here for Christmas. Check.

But, Mr. Devil is in the forty gatrillion details that were listed (on todo lists coming out of my ears) and checked off (!). And carried out with mucho aplomb. Mucho mucho MUCHO aplomb. (See how super satisfied I am with myself?)

We’re talking the usual meal planning and executing, both for day-off stuff, as well as pre-post-meals and snacks for a variety of situations and people. We’re talking all the usual Christmas tasks — shopping, decorating, wrapping, shipping, cards, baking, delivering — plus bunches of accompanying extra nice touches. We’re talking more hosting and spontaneous entertaining than usual, including some extra-curricular activity planning. And we’re talking extra to-dos that had to do with finishing off home/yard/garden/guest room projects in time for guests, that were more about using the occasion of holiday visitors to create a hard deadline (which.. helps gets final things over the finish line, amiright?).

I’m particularly mindful of the workload because today I’ve been doing the very last of a few niggly things… thank you notes and mailing label database updates, and — very satisfyingly — consolidating a mountain of todo lists, triumphantly crossing off anything I missed, and realizing omg omg omg there was a lot of teeny tiny granularity among those big ticket items.. because there always is. But it’s all done.

And it’s sunny.

And the quince is blooming.

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My intention is to back blog and fill in some missing details. But in the event I don’t get to that — it’s entirely possible — here are two photos that speak to the love and happiness that Thanksgiving and Christmas represented for me this year.

My Thanksgiving peeps:

And my Christmas peeps: