Christmas!

Christmas came early when Sarah arrived Tuesday night after her two-day drive from Utah.  She and the dogs stayed Monday night in Burlington, CO.  She and Steve and I drove over to Emily's Wednesday morning for piano lessons and to visit.  Our return home took much longer than planned or expected because Manchester Boulevard, the main artery in Emily's neck of the woods, was a solid red line of traffic thanks to everyone in the whole west county out buying last-minute Christmas gifts.  The plan was to gather at Saint Charles at 4:00 for our annual family shopping/eating event but we were late (and picking up Sally from the groomer didn't help), Beckie had to work so she couldn't be there at all, Elise was delayed by her work and got a later start from Columbia, Melanie briefly got lost, and Steven and Tamara - who had driven all the way from Ohio that day - needed to get back to Columbia soon because Tamara was not doing well.  She is four weeks out from her surgery (complete hysterectomy) and she was experiencing some complications.  She ended up in the ER once they got home and her doctor was able to take care of her issues but she could have ended up hemorrhaging!  So, shopping the streets of Saint Charles was cut short and dinner was without Elise and Steven and Tamara.  It started with such promise and ended kind of sad.  Thankfully, Emily managed to snap a few gathering photos, when it was still in the promise stage....

And, hey - look who Steve ran in to at the English Shoppe!!

Thursday also started out with such promise.  Beckie came over to visit and to pick up Elise and Sarah to do some shopping and to grab lunch.  After she dropped them back off here at home, she left to get ready to go to work when she called Elise with bad news:  her co-worker, who was not feeling well Tuesday night but thought it was just a cold, was even sicker on Wednesday so he went home and on Thursday, he tested positive for Covid!  That meant Beckie was exposed and she had spent the morning with all of us meaning we were also potentially exposed!  Little Fox had to close so Beckie had to go help do that.  And then she needed to try to get tested herself.  The omicron variant has been increasing exponentially here in Saint Louis this past week and getting in to be tested two days before Christmas (or buying a home-test kit) is practically impossible but amazingly, Beckie's boss was able to get her in to be tested Thursday night and happily, she tested negative.  But, before we knew all that, there was a huge black cloud of concern as to what our Christmas was going to look like.....not having the Southerlands over, Beckie not going to Springfield.  And, I cancelled the temple appointment I had made for Steve, Sarah, Elise, and me for Thursday evening and we drove around to look at Christmas lights instead.  So, Beckie's negative result cleared all that cloud away.  Yay.  Below is one of the more over-the-top houses we saw on our lights viewing drive....

Christmas Eve was lovely.  Steve and didn't have to go anywhere so we stayed home and puttered.  Elise and Sarah ventured out again to assorted stores in the morning.  Sarah went over to Beckie's in the afternoon to help with the Bethlehem dinner and Elise did her gingerbread house.

then we all went over to Beckie's to eat her amazing meal and to read from Luke 2 and to watch Scrooge.

Christmas morning, I picked up Sam Carpentero to spend the day with us (sans her bulldog, Blue, though since four dogs are plenty in this small house).  And, Beckie came over and we enjoyed Christmas breakfast before Beckie left to spend Christmas and the weekend with Kyle and Micah in Springfield.

When I headed out to pick up Sam, I saw what some bum did to our outside nativity in our front yard.  Happily, nothing was broken, just knocked down.  The Santa and sleigh next door was not touched, just our nativity, the atheists!

Christmas Eve and Day were unseasonably warm (in the 70's).  In fact, we had to open windows and turn on the attic fan Christmas morning to cool the house down.  It was actually colder in Phoenix than it was here!  But, it didn't stop us from having a very merry Christmas.  Emily and Joe and kids arrived around 3:00 for dinner. 

Afterwards, we actually gathered around the piano and sang carols!  The Southerlands performed the musical number they sang in church last Sunday - Noah played his cello -  and this is a blurry screen shot of the video we took of them singing (I am behind on the piano).  Then, we just kept on singing Christmas carols for about thirty minutes.  It was so fun.  The grandkids are finally at an age where they are interested in singing together.  I now look forward to, and will plan into the schedule, the singing of carols together every Christmas.  After the Southerlands left, we watched One Magic Christmas (we watched It's A Wonderful Life in the morning after breakfast.  Sam had never seen it!!!)  Earlier in the week, we watched The Man Who Invented Christmas, Eloise at Christmastime, The Lemon Drop Kid and the newer Miracle on 34th Street

Today was a peaceful Sunday-after-Christmas with only one hour of church and no other meetings.  Elise headed back to Columbia after lunch and a nap.  Sarah and Steve and I watched The Nativity and Christmas Story (not the "you'll shoot your eye out" one but a Scandanavian Santa origin story made in 2007).  And so our Christmas week is at an end....

 

Temperature roller coaster

 

Wow, this is the only photo I took all week!  It has been chilly and poor Linus was cold.  I bathed him and Sally earlier in the week when temperatures were unseasonable warm - before the mercury plummeted to the twenties last night.  This Thursday, we will have 60 degrees again!

Beckie came over on Monday and we spent ALL day making goodies:  savory almonds, candied walnuts, turtles, fudge, peanut butter balls, almond coconut balls, toffee, cream cheese mints, dipped nut clusters.  She stayed for dinner and then we watched Muppet Family Christmas.  Sam Carpintero came over Thursday morning and she helped me frost the sugar cookies that Larkin and baked last week.  I also baked two batches of cherry nut cookies on Friday (one gluten-free and one gluten-full).  And, with all the goodies finished, Steve and spent yesterday driving around town and walking up and down our street delivering plates of the goodies to church friends and neighbors.  And we still have some goodies left!  

Other events of the week were going to the temple Tuesday morning, helping Fred wrap his presents that evening, Steve mailing our outgoing packages at the post office on Wednesday morning and taking Fred to mail his packages on Friday morning.  He reports that it was a smooth, quick process both times.  Amazing.  Steve was back a the temple Wednesday evening for a ward youth baptism trip.  I stayed home and watched two episodes of Hawkeye (2 and 3).  Thursday evening I caught episode 4.  I understand I am in for a big surprise with episode 5.  Can't wait to watch it as well as the final one after this Wednesday.  Steve and I watched two additional Christmas movies - Midnight Clear and the original Miracle on 34th Street.  And we are listening to Christmas music non-stop.  We have SO MANY Christmas CD's that there is no way we will listen to them all by this Saturday.  Kind of a nice problem, don't you think?  

We had two social events this past week.  Friday night we were invited to have dinner with Ed and Mona, the couple who own the house just east of us.  They are slowly remodeling it so no one lives in it at the moment.  Remember the homeless woman who was squatting there back in the late summer?  I noticed her in the driveway one morning and saw that the front door was wide open so I texted Mona who immediately called the police and drove over herself.  The woman was long gone by then but that was the impetus for her and Ed to make remodeling the place a top priority.  Ed and Mona are vegetarian as we learned when we had them over for dinner about a month ago.  Dinner with them on Friday was tasty but there is no way I plan to go vegetarian in the near future. They live in a gorgeous home that is over a hundred years old and is located in the exclusive Compton Heights neighborhood of Saint Louis.  That home they also remodeled and they are pretty competent with a hammer and saw.  Our second social event was Saturday evening.  We, the four missionaries, and a few families in the ward met at the church with pots of soup and plates of goodies.  After dinner, we loaded up four goodie containers, split into two groups with a set of missionaries and a guitar player assigned to each set, and we caroled and delivered a goodie container to two people that the missionaries are currently teaching.  We then all returned to the church for hot chocolate and the rest of the goodies.  Aside from the gaggle of children running-all-over-the-place and shrieking-at-the-top-of-their-lungs, it was very enjoyable.  Wow, I had forgotten how kids could be when completely uncontrolled by parents.  

I helped a woman in our church relocate her two half-grown kitties Thursday afternoon.  She is currently living in a women's shelter (abusive relationship) and she had to put her cats in an animal shelter.  She gets to move into a new apartment on January 1st and so we got "her boys" and took them to stay with friends for the next two weeks.  Both are very handsome tuxedo cats.  Almost makes me want another cat...(then I remember all the hair they generate)

Steve and I walked to our dentist Friday morning for routine cleanings.  And, I was informed that I will need two crowns!  I had experienced two tooth break-offs in the past four months so I was not really surprised.  Happily (?) they can fit me in for one crown this coming Tuesday and we will save the second one for 2022 when insurance will again cover 50% of the bill (if I had both in 2021, insurance would not be able to cover #2 at 50%).  I sure hope this crown experience is better than the last one I had back in 2020 and where I swore never again.  Stay tuned...

Speaking of being in tune, the Frontenac Strings performed this morning and did beautifully.  And now I am DONE driving all over town every Sunday morning.  And, I accompanied Steve and the bishopric in our own sacrament meeting as they sang a lovely arrangement of "The First Noel".  

So, all in all, last week was pretty laid back and the upcoming one is looking the same.  Gifts are bought, wrapped, and mailed.  Goodies are all delivered.  Musical performances are over.  Bring on Sarah from Utah on Tuesday, Saint Charles on Wednesday, and Christmas this weekend!

 

Second week of December

Here is a photo of me and the grandkids at the Civic Orchestra concert on Sunday, December 5th...

And now, orchestra is on hiatus until January 4th, blessing me with the gift of time on Tuesday nights...much needed during this hectic time of year.

Interestingly, it is the weekends that cause so much craziness.  During the week, not so much.  Such was the case for last week.  Steve and I were able to do all the usual tasks of shopping and cleaning, cello lessons, etc.  I drove out to Ballwin on Tuesday for piano lessons with Noah, Lucy, and Quinn.  I assigned each one a Christmas song to work on.   Wednesday evening was a Holly Hills neighborhood meeting.  Steve and I have never lived in a place where there was so much neighborhood involvement.  We like it....

Beckie took me to lunch on Thursday to thank me for making her Halloween costume.  Steve came, too.  We ate at 1111 Mississippi which has a robust gluten-free menu.  Loved it!  I had received an email earlier in the week from the South Broadway Art Project where I do my pottery that informed me that there had been a kiln disaster and two of the four pieces that I had glazed were damaged with shards of someone else's pottery that had exploded.  Because one was a Christmas gift,  I went in after lunch with Beckie to throw a new plate and bowl.  I brought in the two damaged pieces with me and happily, Tim, one of the owners, was able to remove almost all of the pieces of pottery from my bowl and plate by plyers or a grinder.  So, with a second glazing, they actually might be salvageable!  I returned on Saturday to trim the bottoms of what I threw to prepare them for the bisque firing.  Since then, though, I have decided, that trying to get back to the studio to glaze these new pieces in time to mail for Christmas is not realistic.  Result:  my stress levels have been lowered...

Larkin came again Friday morning and she and I rolled out sugar cookies.  I had a small batch of gluten-free dough that we did first and that took up enough time that I saved the larger batch of gluten-full cookie dough for Saturday morning.  Frosting these many cookies will happen later this week...

Elizabeth Crippen drove in from Columbia around mid-day and we attended the temple that afternoon - rendezvousing with Emily at the temple parking lot to hand off Larkin.  Elizabeth returned home with us afterwards for dinner, two games of Scrabble, and to stay the night.  Weather-wise, it was a wild night with tornado warnings all evening.  Thankfully, our area was not in the direct path but sadly Weldon Spring and Edwardsville, Illinois was with disastrous results.  And to have such weather in December is truly bizarre.  In fact, today, temperatures will be in the 70's!  

Saturday, Steve and I left Elizabeth to leave for home on her own as we had a ward Christmas party/service activity.  We all met at the meetinghouse for a light breakfast (including gluten-free cinnamon rolls!!!) and then two groups left to perform service in other locations.  Steve, Sam Carpintero, Mary Bell, and I drove up to Florissant to a Salvation Army gift staging area and helped inventory gifts donated through their angel tree project.  It was in a vacant store in a strip mall and there were just bins and bins full of bags of gifts to be distributed.  

 As a thankyou, I got a cute little Salvation Army bell that is now a Christmas tree ornament

After the service activity, and trimming at the pottery studio, Steve and I packed up the dogs and their kennel and drove to Columbia.  The main objective was to attend the holiday concert of the Columbia Civic Orchestra but we also stopped in at the Hawk's Nest used furniture store to look for and buy a twin bed frame for the guest room.  Then, we left the kennel and the dogs at Melanie's so we could grab a bite to eat at Culvers. Back to pick up Melanie and head to the concert at First Baptist Church.  Steven and Elise also joined us.   It was SO wonderful to re-connect with so many of my musician friends from the orchestra.  Siri Geenen, principal violinist for the group and a very good friend (she was 1st violinist in Prairie Strings for many years) performed Winter from Vivaldi's Four Seasons.  Her daughter was one of the ballet group who danced to selections from the Nutcracker.  The evening was just a delight and even with the long drive back home and arriving just before midnight, it was worth it.

Sunday was another packed day.  I must admit that of all the holiday activities this year, the one I really regret getting involved in is conducting the Frontenac Ward strings.  It means leaving the house at 7:45, dropping Steve off at our meetinghouse (where he is over thirty minutes early for his first meeting), driving up to the Frontenac building (15 minute drive), rehearsing the group who ALWAYS arrive late, finishing up around 9:15 and driving back to our building to either pick up Steve if it is a non-ward council Sunday or back home to eat a late breakfast and then to pick up Steve at 10:30.  We get home with about 45 minutes before it is time to leave again for our church meetings at 12:00.  The whole morning is just shot (meaning blogging doesn't happen).  This particular Sunday morning, it was even more packed as I had a short rehearsal with Bailey Salinero (a violin playing neighbor) and Caroline Hixson (one of the pianists in our ward).  We played a lovely arrangement of O Holy Night in church.  Church meetings ended at 2:00 and after I dropped off Sam and her service dog Blue, I went home and crashed.  Poor Steve typically has to stay after until the Bishop is finished with interviews.  Usually, I am the one to drive to the church to pick him up but happily, this past week, Bishop Morgan took him home.  We started phone calls with assorted family at 4:30, dinner at 6:00,  and this Sunday, we filled our evening with two new couples in the ward who came over for cookies and milk.  Calls with Kirsti and Sarah closed out the day and Steve and I fell into bed.  I have just one more Sunday with the Frontenac Strings - they perform in their Sacrament meeting on the 19th.  And then I am DONE!  Well, not really.  I am accompanying Steve and the rest of the bishopric in a musical number at our meetings at noon.  

Monday, the 13th, was also a full day but it was a FUN full day.  Beckie came over and we made goodies all day:  savory almonds, turtles, peanut butter balls, almond joys, nut clusters, cream cheese mints, candied walnuts, toffee, and divinity!  Here is everything all packaged up ready for assembling goodie plates for friends and neighbors.  Steve made fudge yesterday to add to the lot.  And, like I mentioned earlier, I will frost cookies tomorrow (Thursday).  Steve is mailing stuff at the post office today, we'll deliver goodies this weekend,  and I still need to do Christmas cards.  But, it is all good. Things are going at a fairly relaxed pace up to the BIG DAY.  

 

The race to Christmas begins

By Sunday, December 5th, the trees were up in the house and our bedroom was decked out in Charlie Brown Christmas.  All the other decoration tubs were still strewn around the basement waiting to be emptied.  That was because I was knocked down Friday with a sinus infection.  Larkin had come for the morning and we had fun but as the hours progressed, my head got worse and worse and by lunchtime, I was not feeling well at all.  I was to have taken Larkin back home in the afternoon to give piano lessons to Noah, Lucy, and Quinn but I had to cancel and just stay in bed.  I was supposed to have my two Columbia cello students here on Saturday morning for lessons but I cancelled them, too and went to urgent care instead where I was first tested for Covid (negative, of course) and then prescribed antibiotics and that has made all the difference!  I did manage to get to the orchestra dress rehearsal Saturday afternoon and by Sunday, I felt well enough to do the Frontenac Strings rehearsal in the morning, attend church at noon, and play in the Civic Orchestra concert that night.  I rested as much as I could all weekend and between that and the medicine, I am feeling so much better today.  I am SO thankful for this because it is Christmas and there is NO TIME TO BE SICK!!!!  Happily, all my gifting was finished weeks ago but there is still plenty of other things to do.  Like finish decorating the house  and baking....

The week started out simply enough - a regular Monday with doing finances, shopping at Walmart... Tuesday we had a morning endowment session and we bought our Christmas tree that afternoon.  I had orchestra rehearsal that evening.  Wednesday was NOT a typical day - I was invited to attend a monthly meeting of a sewing/needlecraft group who call themselves the "Happy Hookers" and who are comprised of a gaggle of little old (and I mean ancient) ladies.  They mostly knit and crochet items to be donated to assorted charities but they also have a sewing contingent and that is where I will be helping.  Since Days For Girls has backed off lately (due to travel restrictions because of Covid), I need some sewing projects to keep me busy while I watch Jeopardy so I will become a "Happy Hooker"!  Wednesday afternoon, I had my annual mammogram and I started a new cello student - my first in-person one here in St. Louis.  Yay!  That evening, while I set up trees and put lights on them, Steve went with the ward youth to the holiday lights at the zoo.  He said it was very nice.  I was invited to go but, having just walked all around the zoo the previous week, my body said "no thank you".  Thursday, we had Sam and her bulldog, Blue, at our house all day as they were refinished her bathtub in her apartment and the fumes were such that she needed to be out for eight hours.  We filled the day with Aldi shopping in the morning and decorating the Christmas trees in the afternoon.  You already know about the rest of the week so I will close with photos of Larkin and of what decorations we currently have up...  

 

These sheep were made by Emily back when she was a teen.  I love them... They are decorating my bathroom