Today is a gift; that's why it's called the present

FULL; not sure when I emptied this last.

Yesterday was DRY, at least during the limited daylight hours. We have had precious few of those lately, but I'm not really complaining. It's nice to have a NORMAL something (in this case, weather) in these anything-but-normal times. And of course I took advantage of it and rode Stella after letting the horses stretch their legs in the arena first. So thankful that I could. The day before I'd felt a wee tinge of vertigo here and there, then was hit by a full-on, room-swirling, stomach-turning attack after I went to bed. I laid there praying I wouldn't be incapacitated for Christmas, or the dry day ahead, or even that night, and the dizziness gradually faded mostly away, and was completely gone by morning. Whew, and praise the Lord!

I've been doing some more Christmas baking recently, both for us to enjoy (sparingly) and to share. Four kinds of cookies post-biscotti: Snickerdoodles (made festive with some red sugar), Frosted Rocks (a molasses spice cookie), Chocolate-covered Cherry Cookies, and Krumkake. I made a second batch of Krumkake today; very few people make those so they are a unique treat to give. I am in the process of planning my Christmas Eve and Christmas Day menus; it may just be the three of us this year but the meals can still be special.

It's a good thing I got that little tree, because it is indeed our only tannenbaum. It sports one additional ornament I received this year (the silver one on the lower right side), and its base is now bolstered by a few presents.

I've also sent two knitted Christmas gifts on their way. Last week when talking to my sister on the phone, she mentioned that my nephew appreciates hand-knits and bright colors. Since I hadn't thought of anything better for him, I dug around in deep stash and found some REALLY bright, bulky yarn – perfect for another Strata Hat like the gray one in my last post. So I whipped one up in two days and got it off in the mail, forgetting to take a photo. (Hopefully Sis will send one of it in use.) In the meantime, I've started a scarf (I had two skeins) that I will send to him for his January birthday. I also pulled out a Fair Isle cap I knitted awhile back, wove all the ends in, and washed it so I could give it to the neighbor who did chores for us as a Christmas/thank you present.

My Christmas gift from Rick this year came early, and couldn't be put under the tree anyway. He got tickets for two to the Beyond Van Gogh experience in Portland for last Sunday, and took me out to eat at Pastini's beforehand. It was a magical date night, and I took a LOT of photos, which really deserve a separate post. Soon!

We've had an interesting week re COVID. We found out a week ago  today that a man who was at our Christian trail-riding club Christmas party had gone to the VA hospital with a serious cough and tested positive for COVID. I was tasked with  contact tracing. In calling everyone else who had been there, I learned that the initial case(s) were a couple who haven't gotten vaccinated because they chose to believe lies instead of science. (I. CAN'T. EVEN.) Since then, the wife and their adult son living on their property in an RV have also gotten sick and tested positive, the man has been hospitalized, and two other attendees (one of them the hostess) have come down with symptomatic COVID. Both of the latter cases are in vaccinated people who had not yet gotten their booster shots; none of us who have gotten the booster have contracted it. (So a word to the wise: get your booster – and wear a mask. No one at that in-house gathering wore a mask; I won't do that again.)

With all that going on, Rick's mom started coughing and then spiked a fever, days before flying to CO to see her daughter and family (she wasn't with us at the party). Rick scrambled to get her tested, which thankfully came back negative. Then my dad down in Texas went through a very similar thing before driving up to see my sister and family; again, thankfully, his test was negative. Yeah, we may be a little jumpy, but not without cause.

I am perfectly happy staying home with my guys and critters, celebrating a quiet little Christmas here.

A strange, out-of-season bloom

That's it now from . . .