MUSINGS ON A JANUARY DAY

It’s beautiful out today. You should be here. The sky is blue with fluffy white clouds and the sun shines warmly through the windows. It’s 53 at this writing. Maybe spring has come. Well, we can’t count on that – especially on a day when the forecast is for rain and wind -- but that early cold snap might have been winter. It’s happened before.

Back in December when I was posting about Ina’s Christmas, I had her drinking from her Christmas teacup. I really did find a Christmas teacup in the farmhouse, though I don’t suppose she had it in 1934. More than likely it came to her post-WWII. On the bottom it says, “hand-painted,” and a well-worn sticker says, “made in Japan.” I love the theme -- the stagecoach and the houses amidst the wintry scene. There’s really nothing about it that's specific to Christmas – sorta like “Jingle Bells” or “Walking in a Winter Wonderland,” so today I’m drinking “Timothy’s Peppermint Ginger Tea” from this cup.

 

I’ve come to realize that I handle Christmas best if I don’t treat the actual day as a deadline. True, those who come to my house must have gifts on Christmas Day. It would hardly do to say, “Oh, and I’ll have a gift for you later.” I try to have the gift cards to the older grandchildren on time. But the simple things I have for 5-year-old Emmy – doll clothes and color books and such – I think those things are better on days when she might need a quiet evening activity. So, I send her things from time to time and not so much for Christmas.

Now we’re one week – almost two – into the New Year. I have yet to tackle my ongoing sewing projects, though slowly my studio becomes more organized. (I can sit on the sofa now.) And so that you won’t wonder what on earth I do with my time anyway, I’m working on a study project. I listen to lectures recorded in the 1950s by a gentleman who speaks English with a heavy Swiss-German accent. It’s tedious work but I love it. My friend and study partner needs my notes in order to follow him at all, and Hallie helped us tremendously by finding a transcription program – that is, once we cleared my laptop of the virus that piggy-backed with it.

 

There’s just one left-over Christmas topic I’d like to tell about – our annual Christmas bonfire. We pile our burnable yard waste down by the pond at the farm and during Christmas, we have an evening bonfire. It’s a memorable part of our celebration, but it didn’t work this year. Too wet with snow. KW