Fri. Nov. 29, 2024: Let the Decorating Commence!

image courtesy of  Jill Wellington via pixabay.com

Friday, November 29, 2024

Dark Moon

Neptune, Chiron, Uranus, Jupiter, Mercury Retrograde

Sunny and cold

We were supposed to have six inches of snow overnight. Instead, it rained and washed away the snow that fell on Thursday and now it’s lovely and sunny. Might turn later, but we’ll take it while it’s here!

Hello! I hope you had a lovely Thursday, holiday or not.

I got some exciting news on Wednesday morning. My play about Kate Warne, where she and her team go undercover as psychics to thwart an adulterous poisoning couple, “A Rare Medium”, will be part of a reading series in Ohio, in May 2025. It will be on ZOOM, which means people from all over the place can watch.

Don’t worry – I’ll remind you closer to the date!

I received a follow-up to a pitch I sent, but it was in the afternoon, and I wasn’t about to respond over a holiday weekend. I’ll respond on Monday – and I might withdraw from consideration. I’m getting warning bells going off in my head, and I should heed those.

Wednesday, I picked up the dessert, did a library run, and swung by the post office. I just gave up trying to get anything else done. I read the next book for review (I’ll send the review off today, since it’s due tomorrow). I dropped the marketing ball on Wednesday, and Thursday I decided not to market at all; give everyone a break.

I started reading THE MAGIC ALL AROUND by Jennifer Moorman, once I’d finished the book for review, and that was lovely.

Up early on Thursday, good morning meditation on my own (no meditation group, for obvious reasons). We woke up to snow! Just a smattering, enough to make everything look pretty. Got the turkey in the oven by 9:30, and just read all morning, and played with the cats. Even though Bea is still wary of being handled, she loves to hang out and be close to us. She interacts with us; I even stroke her back sometimes.  We are getting there. She and Tessa were off doing things on Thursday.

The neighbors in the house next store have a kitchen window that faces my office window. They were up cooking all night (still at it at 3 AM when I briefly woke up). Tessa sat in my desk chair most of the night and watched them, fascinated.

I made the mashed potatoes, steamed some peas, got the cranberry sauce out. We used the good china (which I like to use often anyway), but used the serving dishes, too. I used store-bought stuffing this year, instead of making my own. I make a very good stuffing, but it takes a little over an hour of prep time, and I just didn’t have it in me this year. The store-bought wasn’t as good as mine, but it was still tasty, and much less work. We lit the candles and just enjoyed the meal.

We like to eat our big holiday meals at mid-day, so that we can clean up and have an easy time of it for the rest of the day.

My mom handled getting the meat off the carcass, while I did all the dishes. When she was done with the carcass, I made stock out of it. I had used the last of our chicken stock in the roasting pan (I put 5 cups of liquid under the bird, and it poaches more than it roasts, making the meat very tender). This time, two of those cups were of chicken stock. It also made a richer base for the gravy, along with the giblets. The giblets were then transferred to the stock pot along with the bones to make stock.

Made the stock, let it cool, washed those pots and colanders, put everything away. Everything is labelled and stored where it should be.

I have to sit down in the next few days and make my baking lists – both ingredient and cookie platter recipients. I have to do the baking at the end of this week into next weekend and start getting those out the door, along with the cards.

It was late afternoon by the time everything was done and put away, and I just rested, read, and played with cats. It alternated raining and snowing all day. I wondered if I should go and brush off the car, but didn’t feel like it.

Went to bed early and slept for 11 hours. I was tired! I’m definitely taking advantage of this cycle’s Mercury Retrograde message of rest!

We were supposed to have 6 inches of snow overnight and awful weather all weekend. I woke up to all the snow washed away and bright, sunny skies.

I’m debating whether or not to go to Whitney’s today and get the door wreath, but I really hate to be out on the road on Black Friday. I haven’t actually shopped Black Friday since at least Bush I and probably before. I’m getting a little tired of all the “shop small” screeching. I’ve been doing so for nearly 30 years.

On today’s agenda: start the decorating. We won’t be finished by the end of the weekend, but Sunday is the First of Advent, so getting up the advent table is a priority. We have to do everything in a different order than usual, because we’re putting things in different places this year. Since we have to be able to close the sewing room doors, we are putting the tree in front of the mock fireplace, so we can tie off on the supports. But that means decorating the mantel behind it first, and rearranging a bunch of furniture. We’re moving the plants out from the east window, and using the top of the Pump Room Drinks Trolley cart (from Chicago’s pump room in the 1920’s) that usually holds plants as part of the holiday village setup. The Advent table, which is usually in front of the mock fireplace, will be on the other side of the room, in front of the village and TV bureau. I also have to get everything out of the closet in Tessa’s room and from under the guest beds before we put up the tree and empty the Christmas closet in the sewing room, because when we rearrange the furniture, we won’t have access to those places.

In other words, it’s “we have to decorate by what’s stored where” rather than a smooth, logical room-by-room setup. Which means it will take longer, and some portion of the apartment will be half done for a few days. But it will be festive once it’s done! And different – it’s nice not to get stuck in doing the same things every year, even though there’s comfort in tradition.

But the first thing that has to happen is to swap the harvest fabrics on everything for winter holiday fabrics. Which means I will probably have to iron. Current Me is annoyed at Past Me for not ironing everything before I put it away.

Weather permitting, we will go and pick up the wreath for the front door this weekend (or Monday, if the weather is hateful all weekend) and get that up. Last year’s wreath stayed green until June of this year. We strip it to just the greens and hang it on the living room door after Jan. 6, when we take down the decorations. When it starts to fade, I cut off a bunch of the greens to burn in the cauldron at Yule and recycle the rest. Every wreath we’ve bought from Whitney’s since we moved here has lasted at least 6 months, scenting the place beautifully.

I better get moving, hadn’t I? Decorating is a lot of work, but it’s worth it once it’s done. And since we keep them up until the Epiphany (although we’ll probably take things down on the 5th, the Sunday this year), we have a good six weeks or so of enjoyment.

Have a lovely weekend!