Tag: xmas

Post Covid Vax Come Down

My wife and I both got our latest Covid-19 vaccination shots yesterday evening, and we are both feeling the effects today. The last time we did this I felt legitimately sick the next day. Today I am just tired and sore and flakey-brained. I’ve managed to check a couple of things off of my to do list, but I feel like I have punted a lot of things off until tomorrow.

I finished the laundry and made the bed and bought a gift for my work’s yankee swap on Tuesday. I ran an errand for Jen and I helped her with a home office project she’s working on. I wrapped some xmas gifts, but only about 25% of the pile. Hopefully I can pick off some more tonight. I had told Jen that I was thinking about hanging xmas lights outside but that I wasn’t promising anything. I just didn’t have it in me today. The weather is supposed to be bad tomorrow, but it could be okay early in the morning. We’ll see if I feel better then.

My stomach has been a jerk today. Lots of “hey, I’m empty so I am going to hurt you a lot” stomach aches. I wonder if that can be related to the vaccine shot. Probably not, but who knows? I’ll be fine tomorrow, I am sure.

On unrelated nerd notes, I have not watched the third and final Dr Who 60th anniversary episode yet. I got a text from my step son, Harry, asking me if I have seen it yet. I told him no but asked him if it was good. He said very, without any spoilers. I’ll get to it before I sleep tonight. I did manage to watch the 4th and final episode of Geddy Lee Asks: Are Bass Players Human Too with Krist Novoselic from Nirvana. What a fascinating guy. I also finished season three of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. The 3rd season finale is one of my favorite episodes ever. The 4th season premier is another one of my favorite episodes. I’m in a good Star Trek binge watching place right now.

Okay, time for dinner. Time to try to talk my stomach into calming the hell down. No problem!

Xmas Lights

We went out for a drive tonight to see some xmas lights around town. Jen and I were telling Bellana about a pair of houses we saw a few years ago that actually had their light display stretch across the street. We couldn’t remember where it was though. It made us a little sad.

Jen was directing us around based off of a screen shot of a facebook post that had some addresses on it. She took us to Sampson Street and wouldn’t you know it, that was the place where the lights stretched across the street! It wasn’t two houses, it was practically the whole street, but the lights only crossed in one spot.

It was really cool.

It made me wonder… is this a case of multiple households collaborating, or is it one household who knocks on doors asking if they can decorate other people’s houses. I wonder.

Drives around town like this are attempts at jump starting xmas spirit for me. It generally doesn’t work. I still doubt that I will have anything resembling holiday spirit before the 21st or 22nd of December. That’s just how it goes for me. It would be fun if it weren’t true and I could get into it early, but nope.

I’m Not Ready

I am not ready for xmas to take over all aspects of our daily American lives. Every year I go through this. It takes me until maybe December 21st or 22nd before I start feeling the holiday spirit. Up until then it’s bordering on loathing. We as a culture over do it so much that it’s painful to me. I just want a normal December and then a few days of holiday excitement and then New Years and then it’s over again. Why is that too much to ask? Why did I have to hear awful, awful xmas music blaring at me at the grocery store on Sunday November 26th at 8:10am? It’s just gross.

I would like to go back to Disney World though, so here’s some xmas decorations from Magic Kingdom. Granted these were taken a couple of weeks after New Years last January which is equally as gross as xmas music in November but… whatever.

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Christmas Eve Eve

It’s christmas Eve Eve. The last work day before a three day Santa Clausy weekend. The work days have been quiet this week and I am thankful. Remind me to mention it next Thanksgiving.

My father is home from the rehab hospital. Did I mention that yesterday? I can’t remember.

There’s supposed to be an ass kicker of a rain storm going on outside right now. When I got out of bed around 5:40 (an hour ago) I looked outside and it didn’t seem too bad. I might sneak over to CVS after they open and see if I can get a padded mailing envelop and a sharpie or two. I have something to ship to Minnesota and it is bugging me that I haven’t taken care of it yet. I also finished my test roll of film that combines my Nikon camera with Dad’s Pentax lens. I want to send that roll off for developing to make sure the combo works before I take it to Florida. I might take the lens that came with my camera from ebay too even though it’s in pretty rough shape. Maybe alternate days? Dad’s lens the first time we go to a specific park and mine the second? Who knows.

I just finished a (simulated) four mile run. If I had actually run four miles my legs would have fallen off and my head would have exploded. You know how it is.

Christmas Eve is a big day ’round these parts. We have a little family get together every non-Covid year. This year, in the spirit of hybrid work environments, we’re having a sort of hybrid christmas eve get together. That just means the guest list is smaller and there won’t be as much food consumed. The food thing doesn’t have anything to do with the guest list, it just means I don’t have a stomach anymore. I would also like to visit both of my parents, if I can. I would also like to take Dad’s camera to the ocean, maybe. I would also like to clean the kitchen and the bathrooms and the living room a little, but that won’t take a lot of time. We’ll see if I can get to any of that stuff.

Today, apart from the usual work day stuff, I want to bake cookies and make Tewksbury Tweets. We made the dough for the cookies yesterday, but it needs to sit in the ‘fridge before going in the oven. I wanted to make some Tweets, but there was a cat documentary on Netflix and you know how that is, right?

Okay, time to eat some breakfast and take a shower and do all of that boring morning stuff that doesn’t make for a good blog entry but I often write about anyway because I am a stinking rank amateur at this stuff.

How Long Until Christmas?

How many days left until SantaDay?

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I still have one present left to get. I won’t have the car until after work tonight so it will have to wait until tomorrow. Why not go out after work? Because I am planning on doing some holiday themed baking. Can you believe it? Jen and I had talked about baking cookies and I think that has to happen tonight. I also want to make some Tewksbury Tweets. I can’t eat any of these things myself, but I want to have them around for anyone who comes over on christmas eve. I snuck out to Market Basket before work and got the last thing we need to make the tweets (no relation to twitter, of course). We should be good to go. I just have to get through the work day, and then cook dinner, and then eat dinner, and then it’s baking (or no-baking for the Tewksbury tweets) time.

Santa will be here in three days. You had best be extra good if you’re on the presents vs coal bubble, right? Good luck, you naughty people.

Snow and Spirit

We got a little snow yesterday. Not a lot, just enough to more or less cover the ground. There are still spots where some leaves and grass are sticking up, but the ground is more or less white. It’s not the first snow we’ve had this season, but it’s the first that was still there the next morning. I was thinking of going out to shoot some film photos this morning but the roads are icy and I don’t wanna. Stupid snow. I hate snow.

You would think that a little snow on December 11th/12th combined with wrapping a bunch of presents over the last two days would give me a smidgen of christmas spirit. Nope. Nothing. I am notoriously late in developing that particular seasonal spirit but I’ve been trying to make it happen this year. I’ve been plugging in all of the lights most nights and watching christmas specials with Jen and all of that, but it’s just not getting through this year. It will, eventually, but I was kinda hoping to not have to wait until christmas eve, the way I often do.

Last year Jen was having trouble getting into it and we spent an evening driving around looking at people’s lights and that helped a little. I am guessing we’ll need to do that again this year. If the weather cooperates maybe we could drive to Stoneham and check out the displays at the Stone Zoo. Maybe we could go into Boston and take a stroll through the park and down Comm Ave. I don’t know. Something. The kids are coming home from school this weekend but we haven’t worked out a schedule yet. We know they will spend most of their time at Dad’s to start with as they will be spending two weeks in Florida with us just after New Year, so we want to be fair to their other house. Maybe if we get some time with them before the holiday I can talk everyone into going for a lights drive. Maybe having them nearby will be enough to make me feel a little holiday spirited.

I’m sure I’ll let you know.

It’s possible that my current lack of spirit has something to do with a savage gift wrapping injury I sustained on Saturday.

Paper cut.

Wrapping paper cut.

Ouch, babie. Ouch.

A Christmas Present Wrapping Injury. Really.