Usually, I give over the whole month of December to prepare for Christmas. This year, the preparation began even earlier. The last Sunday of November, Thanksgiving weekend, Arne and family wanted to come over to have the kids decorate our Christmas tree. That’s never happened before. “Gulp,” I said, “Bob we better go to Home Depot after church and get our tree,” which we did. The family arrived mid-afternoon and Bob and Liam were soon working to prepare the tree to go into the tree stand. Elsa and I began to look at the bins of my decorations. When the tree was up, she and I decorated the tree. It was a very sweet time. She put on the lights and wrapped the gold ribbon around it as I pulled out ornaments. She wanted to know the history of each one. After a while , she said “you really have a lot of ornaments.” I took that as a hint to stop talking so much and just to put on more ornaments. I’ve not had anyone help me decorate the tree for a long time. So that was a thrill. Liam had retired to the shop to work on the metal lathe which is his current passion. Finally when he came up, just before they left, he added a group of bright red balls to the tree. It was a wonderful gift to me to have them here to help. This year our Christmas decorations were out early, starting my preparations. I was happy to give them Advent calendars which Liam had requested.
The weeks that followed have been wonderful. Time to attend my favorite exercise classes at the Berkeley City Club. I like to invite friends to come and experience my pleasures. I invited a couple of swimmer friends to swim and have lunch. I joined them in the pool and swam ten lengths, the longest swim I’ve done in probably more than 30 years. We had a lovely long lunch celebrating a friend’s birthday. But I was too enthusiastic and have suffered hip muscle strain. I guess I have to remember how old I am.
Music has been very present in our lives. We have attended wonderful concerts, including a brass concert in the past weeks. We especially enjoyed watching on zoom Erika playing her clarinet in the Winter Wind Concert at Smith College.
I started my Christmas baking and now sweet smells fill the house. I do love to bake and so far I have made pumpkin bread, persimmon bread and a batch of cherry-chocolate chip oatmeal cookies for Arne. I have collected most of my Christmas presents and now must just wrap them. . Bob wrote the printed Christmas card and I finished writing personal notes on them all. This year, I am inspired in my artistic endeavors from a class at the Berkeley City Club. Some bright red Christmas card envelopes from last year’s cards caught my fancy and made a collage in my art journal.
This week, we have four nights out for which I am excited. Erik will be here in three days. Paul and family come on Sunday and then the Christmas spirit will have arrived. I am thrilled they still want to come and happy to make the preparations for them. Christmas Eve, Arne and family come and it will be fun to have the whole family here. I will be the first time we’ve been altogether since Erika’s graduation party in June 2024. I look forward to special times, going to the Berkeley Bowl, cooking, baking and walking, if it’s not raining. Preparing is a big part of Christmas celebration. I’m enjoying taking it slowly and in stride. Anticipation is the word for me now. I look forward to making special memories this Christmas.
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