Monday, December 29, 2008

Betwixt and between...

I seem to be maintaining something of a holiday mindset this week. Until New Years Day is past, I'll have one foot in the gentle present and the other in the mundane future, still grooving on the holiday but also thinking of things that are pending and need to be done. Between being sick and then a severe cold snap that made pavements too dangerous to navigate by foot, I hadn't done any walking until today. That was three whole weeks of relative inactivity, and the movement felt good this morning. There's still a load of leaves to be raked both front and back--our neighbor's oak is always the last to be heard from--and I will be tackling that this week.

Christmas was exactly as we wanted it, very low-key. We had no tree, and with everything else going on in the house at the moment we didn't miss one. We piled our presents on the coffee table and had a wonderful time surprising each other on Christmas morning. The cats, as usual, had a field day chasing balled-up wrappings--great presents as far as they were concerned. The rest of the day was quiet; we went late to my sister's house for a delicious turkey dinner. My presents to her and her daughters were cuttings from my beautiful yellow Christmas cactus.

New Year's Eve is still tentative. We may do nothing at all, or we may have a couple of friends in for a game of cards and dinner, depending on how they're feeling. They are getting over a major illness, and simultaneously mourning the Christmas Eve passing of their dog, who had been a part of their family for 15 years. We'd love to see them but will certainly understand if they'd rather be at home.

Through all, house painting continues. Steve has almost finished working his magic on the bedrooms upstairs, then will come the hall and stairway, the basement, and, finally, the kitchen. It's looking gorgeous as he makes his progress and we re-arrange furniture. Housing issues are unavoidable and hang above everything, as always. I should have something substantive to report in a couple of weeks.

Have a wonderful day.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sounds like you had a nice Holiday!

Good to hear that you & Steve are moving along on the house. Hope you will post photos when the upstairs is finished.

Ralph said...

Nice to hear from you, Linda. I'd missed you! (Of course it would have helped if I'd written something!) Hope your holidays are smooth and peaceful.

Anonymous said...

We drove grand daughter Isabel back over to Sanford so I guess I can say with some emotion that this Christmas is officially over. We have nothing planned for NY Eve. Just hoping to feel a freshness in 2009. That Judy Collins version I like alot. Never heard it before but will look it up to play on Cat. It's a good one. Who am I thinking of who made that song so popular? Peter,Paul & Mary? I gotta mental block for some reason.

Ralph said...

Z&M, the only really big version I can think of is Ian and Sylvia, who wrote the song. Don't think PP&M ever did it.