The Corona Diaries Week 40 - Merry Christmas

Christmas week. Often melancholy as you get older. Having young kids makes it magical again. 

This year was a combo of both, what with a raging pandemic but also with a nine year old who we think might have still believed in Santa...maybe? No matter what, she loved the magic of all the Christmas fun. She hardly mentioned the big man at all in the run up to Christmas day, but then let on that he would be filling our stockings. She did want to leave him snacks. But that was about it.

I remember being nine or ten and at Christmas I was pretty sure Santa wasn't real, but I remember feeling weird about just saying it or owning up to it. I kind of just played along and then the next year it wasn't a thing. So maybe next year it won't be a thing with Harper.

Kurt and I never really played up the Santa thing all these years. We just went along with whatever Harper said about it. I think we only ever did one photo with Santa and that was when Harper was one or two. I happened to be walking her through the mall in December and Santa and his elves were all just hanging out at their photo set up, no one else around. We popped in, did a photo and left.

My melancholy this year is, of course, pandemic lock down related. We normally do something extra or go somewhere extra - like take the train north or visit Maui. Harper has three weeks off for winter break every year, which is good and bad. Hard to just be STUCK IN THIS HOUSE. Winter break 2021/2022 is going to be EPIC.

I hope.

Damn we better be much freer by then. I doubt we'll get the vaccine until late summer at the very earliest, if not later in the fall.

Ugh. Today is Tuesday 12/29 as I write all this. I'm just in no mood for upbeat happy thoughts. I'm not trying to be fake, but I'm also not trying to be such a downer.

Let's get to the pictures. That's easy to do.

For a full day last week, Harper wore my red high heels. At one point she mentioned "My toes get squeezed in these." And I said something like "Welcome to the world of uncomfortable shoes." Honestly though, I can't remember when I last wore those!

A late birthday present arrived!

Thank you note to her teacher to go along with our digital gift.

She helped me wrap gifts for Kurt.

Kurt had a nice morning with his pride.

Mr. Biscuit is getting much more adventurous. (Click to see him on the roof!)

We did a drive around our neighborhood to look at lights. Something that is a tradition for us! I feel like we have so few.

On Christmas eve I did some socially distanced gift deliveries and stood chatting outside one friend's house. 

Kurt had his own wrapping fun.

After MONTHS of home bound life, Kurt decided to get super old school and make egg nog from scratch as well as pasta from scratch.

The egg nog tasted sort of like egg nog, but more like really rich melted ice cream. I had a couple sips and that was plenty. Glad Kurt only made a half batch. 

Harper learned about the hard work to make pasta!

It's tiring.

While we let the dough rest, we had some lovely pu-pus. (Along with Harper's dolls, wrapped in washcloth blankets.)

Then we rolled the dough and used the pasta machine to make it thin, then cut into pappardelle. 

Once cooked we realized we didn't roll it enough times (even on the thinnest setting) and we cut them too wide. But it still tasted great with a little tomato/garlic/basil sauce I whipped up. 

Harper went to bed kind of early...funny that. Leaving cheese and crackers for Santa and egg nog (TJ's, not home made). We He enjoyed it. Biscuit looked on.

The cats didn't do much to the tree itself, but damn, they could not get enough of the tree water. Constantly drinking it, then stepping over the presents.

The day itself started early with stockings on the big bed. I forced Harper to look out at the beautiful sky to the east. 

Then she got to work.

Yes the cats got gifts too.

The aftermath.

Then on to the living room for more gifst. 

One of my all time favorite gifts from 2020.

Kurt got a slanket from the cats for all his cold winter gaming nights.

Later he turned into Palpatine. Not sure what that was about. 

Harper's big gift was not a phone, but an iPod Touch. So she can listen to music. Before wrapping it, I opened it and took off a TON of stuff and disabled a ton more. Left the music app, plus garage band, and a few more. But she LOVES the weather app. It's all based on my phone (joint apple account) so she happily reads off very detailed reports from Los Angeles, Seattle, Maui, St. Albans and Lucca. It's a treat. 

Harper also got a radio from Gammo! An honest to goodness radio (with usb ports and bluetooth of course) that Harper played around with for a while. That was cool. 

More aftermath. Tennis bag also from Gammo with lots of other fun prezzies in it. 

We had cinnamon rolls and bacon and eggs after.

Then started watching Wonder Woman 1984. (meh.) Biscuit got super cute and snuggly.

From Harper's new device. And also my BEST new sweater. 

Dinner table prep.

Merry Christmas! Shout out to Sarah for the Christmas Crackers!

The menu was the exact same as Thanksgiving, down to the strawberry shortcake. I added some frozen cherries to mine. 

We were very lucky to have all we did on Christmas.

On Saturday / Boxing Day, I took Harper for a long beach walk. TONS of surfers were out. 

Can't keep a girl out of the water.

Willoughby enjoyed the slanket on Sunday, not letting Willoughby have a turn. 

It was a long busy week-I'm briefly employed-and I was so happy to be done with work on Wednesday and finally finish everything up and relax. 

What will 2021 bring? Better news, I hope. Well. We'll see how it looks after next week's run off election in Georgia. Yes of course I'm texting like a madwoman for that!

The Corona Diaries Week 40 - Busy Days

Busy busy week. I have a paying gig which was very nice in terms of money around the holidays, but then it kept me so busy that I had to pile a ton of stuff into the weekend, so the weekend was not about relaxing at all. Not complaining, just tired. And it's Monday and I'm up early to blog and meal plan two weeks of food plus holiday meals. I'm doing the shopping today (double masking and going as quick as I can - glad I know our TJ's as well as I do) so we don't need to go again for two or three weeks. The numbers are not great here in LA. (Understatement of the pandemic.)

Today I need to do more work on the paying gig, but hopefully not a ton. I'm waiting on feedback, etc. I have last minute packages I need to send via the Post Office. I know it will be busy there, but I'll try to time it for mid-morning when it tends to be not as jammed and if it is, maybe I'll go to the postal store near Whole Foods and pay a little extra. There are library books to return and one order at See's Candy waiting for pick up. Holidays are still busy no matter what, even with curbside pick ups and direct shipping.

Harper had her last week of school. It started with art class. I had the kids made half-face self portraits. Here are the ones Harper and I did. I have a couple ideas for the new year, but need to plan a bit better. It's hard to think of things you can do over zoom, that doesn't make a huge mess in the kid's homes and also doesn't require buying a lot of stuff.

Harper also had her nine year check up at the doctor's office. BONUS: No shots! BUMMER: still had to do a blood test (finger prick). We love our pediatrician - turns out he's a major Star Wars fan so every year we talk about the latest SW movie or The Mandalorian.

(Amazing to think 9 years ago she fit into that tiny scale on the window sill!)

She was rewarded with a traditional lollipop and then an evening of DRIVE THROUGH CHRISTMAS WONDERLAND!

Polar Bears

And Mr and Mrs. Claus were there to wave us out.

Harper was hoping/expecting a lot of candy, a la the Halloween thing. Alas, she had to content herself with a mini stocking and a bag of mini toys and candy. But she had a good time nonetheless! And driving while looking at lights is always a favorite activity in our house.

Friday was her last day of clay class for the year. They made winter themed things. Igloo. Polar bear. Icebergs (the blue things) and a santa hat...

...and a tiny heart with the tiniest of little santa hats.

Saturday was a busy day as expected. After being on the job all week, I had a lot to catch up on.

Harper will ask for a fried egg for breakfast sometimes and I'm happy to make it for her. But Saturday morning she was watching tv and she yelled:

MAMA! CAN YOU MAKE ME A FRIED EGG ON TOAST??

It made me laugh. So I made her a fried egg on toast and some apples and a drink and served the princess. (I love these cafeteria trays I bought earlier this year!)

Then she drew a card for our hair stylist and it's kind of hard to see, but there are scissors, a blow dryer and I think a drink with a straw and something else...the stylist came over to do more hair work for me on Saturday and we gave her a holiday gift.

But first, Harper and I made candied nuts as xmas presents. (Oh and a big pot of squash soup in the FG).

Hair time.

Harper was having a zoom with a friend so she hung out in the "waiting area" while zooming.

In process.

Finished! Nice and light for the winter.

After that, I chilled for a few minutes to watch The Mandalorian finale again. We had watched it as a family the night before, but I wanted to watch again. Such a good show!

After the relaxing, I got to work in Santa's workshop and wrapped gifts. The boxes had been piling up in the closet for a while! Most were for Kurt and Harper, a few to mail off. It always surprises me how much work it is. But it will all be worth it on Friday morning.

We received a gift that came with dry ice so off we went to see how that works in a bowl of water! (When I opened the package, I grabbed up the ice bags to take to the sink, not realizing it was dry ice. As I carried it I thought, "Wow, this is really cold-ow ow OW OW OW!" I didn't get burned but a couple spots on my fingers hurt for an hour.)

Mussels were part of what was in the dry ice box so we had them for dinner! YUM

Another package arrived earlier than expected - our big gift to ourselves. Merry Christmas to us!

And Biscuit. Sweet Biscuit having a long winters nap.


Random: Have you watched Ted Lasso on Apple TV+? I love it. I just love love love it. It's hilarious and smart and is about an optimist who does good and succeeds. Refreshing! I'm going to watch it again next week.

 

The Corona Diaries Week 39 - Christmas is coming

I'm having pandemic fatigue. More so than usual. There is good news on the horizon, but it will be what? 6 - 8 - 10 more months like this? Hard to say...I'm hoping for the best, but. But. The holidays usually are usually something to look forward, not just of themselves, but because we usually have plans to go somewhere. So we'll have as jolly a holiday as we can. If it were just me, I probably would have gotten the lights on the tree and stopped there. Decorating just doesn't feel so exciting this year at all. But as you'll see below, I made a valiant effort with Harper today. We are lucky to have all that we do.

Interestingly, Harper hasn't been talking much about Santa. Not sure if she's on the cusp of knowing or if she's been distracted by birthday. We do Stocking presents from Santa but mostly all the presents under the tree are from us or other family members. We'll see what happens on Christmas Eve, if she wants to leave milk / cookies out.

Harper got a very special gift for her Birthday that arrived the day after her actual birthday. Shout out to Courtney!!

She also got a gift card and used it to buy something she's been wanting for a while - an RC car! The car is SO DIRTY now because she's had so much fun with it outside!

I keep forgetting (I think) that I'm teaching art for Harper's class. Every Monday at 9:30 I'm in charge. I get SO STRESSED OUT. But the kids seems to enjoy our projects and I have had two moms contact me to say thanks and one even said her son was SO PROUD of the drawing he'd done. That makes me feel sooooo good! Thank god for Pinterest!

Last week we did pictures of catching snowflakes on your tongue with a different perspective of your face. PLUS a scarf and a crazy/ugly sweater. This was Harper's:

The Biscuit is very photogenic.

It's rare that I have bread, mayo, tomatoes, bacon and lettuce in the house all at the same time. But when I do. YUM.

On Tuesday we got our Christmas tree. Harper hugged a lot of trees while we were there.

And pretended to be a reindeer.

Then we found OUR tree...

And got it home.

And welcomed it inside.

Where it kept our other decorations company.

And Biscuit liked to sit near it and bond.

We let the tree rest then put lights on it a few days later, plus a few ornaments to start.

Friday was clay art and Harper made Mr. Biscuit, food and water bowl, bed and blanket and a wee mouse toy.

We think Willoughby is part dog.

We got our trees trimmed on Friday and Saturday. I didn't do proper before and afters...just this wacky one of the back area/driveway covered in branches. The office is much brighter during the day.

And it occurred to me that it hasn't really rained or stormed here since April or May. I know Harper and I drew pictures on the chimney in April, then it rained, then I asked Kurt to draw something. This picture is from this week. So that's six months at least since it's rained for REAL. UGH. I'm seriously so done with LA and it's lack of rain.

And today? Today (Sunday) Harper asked for a SPA day. So we did face masks, drank tea, painted fingernails and watched tv.

Then we finished decorating the tree. Yes, the bottom is empty because, you know. Cats.

I've had these since I was little little. They make me so happy.

I bought these a few years ago and love them too. Harper bunched them all together.

 

Only a few more weeks until the end of the year. My 7 week personal goals are kind of on track. Kind of. They got majorly slowed down by actual paying work, so while that's a bummer on one hand, income is always helpful. So I adjust and continue on.

 

Books Books Books! It's A Win Win Win!

The very first blog I started was "Julia's Bookshelf" in October of 2005. (YouTube was only 8 months old then!)

In 2009 I folded that blog into this blog and somehow, writing about the books I was reading fell by the wayside. But I still read a lot! So I thought I would combine my love of books with my love of independent bookstores. Like my two newest favorite spots: Powell's Books in Portland, OR or Lucy's Books in Astoria, OR. (Just visited them last January). I still mourn the loss of the Traveler's Bookcase in Los Angeles and the cookbook shop that was next door to it. I love book stores!

At the beginning of this pandemic, book stores took an extra hard hit. Then the founders of Bookshop.com put together a website where you can buy books online and they help independent bookstores. As they say on their site: "By design, we give away over 75% of our profit margin to stores, publications, authors and others who make up the thriving, inspirational culture around books!" I LOVE THAT.

So why are you telling us all this?

It's the Holidays - books make a great gift! Why not buy from Bookshop.com and get a win - win? You get great gifts to give during the holidays and independent bookshops benefit! They even just started selling gift cards - something I've been waiting for from them, yay!

I made my own "store" on their site where you can start perusing the recommendations I have for kids books as well as some of my all time favorite books for grown-ups.

Check it out by clicking HERE.

And yes - full disclosure - I am an affiliate of Bookshop.org and I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.

YAY BOOKS!!!

Harper Turns Nine - A Pandemic Birthday Adventure

Earlier in the fall, we had discussed having a small birthday party in the park with Harper's friends - much like we'd done all summer, with bikes, masks and lots of space and fresh air. Then it became clear that we needed to think different with Covid numbers going up and lock down restrictions in place. So the Drive-By Pandemic Party became the thing. Disappointing to be sure, but so much better than nothing at all. And I think it went well.

The Birthday Girl asked for a Baby Yoda themed party. DONE! (Honestly I thought it would be Harry Potter again! Happy to move on from that.)

So Baby Yoda for the win!

First there was party prep on Saturday and BIG ASS BALLOONS. Because why not.

Kurt bought Harper some old school gifts.

We put together gift bags for the kids who were going to come by. We made sticker packs and Harper drew on each of them. There were Baby Yoda cups and stickers and gummy frogs in each gift bag, plus homemade cupcakes for everyone to take home.

The morning of:

We start with the traditional balloons and streamers on Harper's door.

Then we moved on to opening presents:

Did we got a little overboard? Maybe. But to be clear - 3 of these gifts were from other people. We gave Harper six presents: 2 were books, 2 were board games and 2 were items of clothing she so desperately needed as she's grown out of everything! All in all, very practical.

Then pancakes - Found the batter mix with this on it. When did that happen? I think it was some random school morning a while back - Hilarious.

Note to self - next year do the numbers backward so they look better when finished cooking.

Grace sent nice presents and one was this WEINERMOBILE WHISTLE!!!!!! She got to see the WM in person a few weeks ago.

I was so excited! Harper was all: "meh" so I said: GIVE IT. It's mine now. Thanks Grace!

Then on to frosting cupcakes! We made the cakes the day before and did buttercream frosting the morning of.

Green for Baby Yoda theme...

Harper did all the frosting herself.

Kurt worked hard to set up the drive-way drive-by "Party" venue while we were decorating and getting other stuff ready.

Ready to party!

Street party art:

Waiting...

Waiting...

The party starts!

We love our friends!!!

At one point there were about 12-15 people standing around our driveway/in the street (all masked, and all standing at safe distances) and it was so bittersweet to only be able to wave and chat loudly, then send them on their way with gift bags and cupcakes. I'm go grateful for all our friends who were able to make it over!

And then we were tired.

We cleaned up, then Harper opened more presents.

Then we had burgers and pie and played LIFE.

For what it was - Pandemic Birthday with Lock Down regulations in place - not too bad, all things considered.Harper is a lucky lucky girl and I'm so glad we could make it special in its own way.

The days go slow, but the years fly by.

UPDATE: I forgot to add the invite I made for the party:

 

The Corona Diaries Week 38 - Birthday and Holiday Prep Week

Harper turned 9 on Sunday (12/6). (I'll do a separate post on that pandemic adventure.)

Here she is 8 years ago on her very first birthday and again, same wagon, same spot in the yard, turning 9.

Leading up to this big day, we had a week of just getting by, prepping for the party and the holidays to follow, but all pretty low key. I did have an emotional up and down. I was feeling soooooo good about the future! A reasonable chance at better government, vaccine within shouting distance. I got EXCITED! Then I remembered, that everything would be the same (or worse because, you know, stupid people and rising covid numbers, UGH.) for months and months and months and months. Truly, nothing will really change until summer 2021, earliest. Like a little kid, I gobbled down all that sweet sweet sugar of hope and then crashed hard. I'm making my way back from that.

The normal things of the week:

Biscuit. He roams around outside now, having learned to actually climb fences in both directions. (Into our neighbor's yard and out of our neighbor's yard.) Sometimes I'll walk out the front door and find him there, just flopping around, chillin'.

Harper wrote about Thanksgiving for school. (Please click for bigger and enjoy the read). I asked where Kurt was in this picture and she said she just couldn't fit him in. Sorry Kurt.

Also, music is a big thing in Harper's life. Her current faves are Shaed and Little Mix. Little does she know that her big christmas present this year is an iPod Touch so she can listen to music on her own. Currently, she has to borrow my phone or the iPad. Kurt and I were talking about "back in the old days" when we were kids, we had a record player and/or a radio to listen to. But now you have to buy a device that can also do a zillion other things. (okay I could have bought a more basic mp3 player, but for a hundred other reasons, we didn't, mainly ease of use for listening in our Apple account.) Before she really starts using it, I'm going to remove a few apps first. I'm sure it won't take her long to figure out how to download everything, but that's what parental passwords are for!

More art from Harper.

Holiday themed:

Speaking of Holidays - we usually don't get a tree until after Harper's birthday so we did a lot of inside decorating (as previously mentioned). Got the traditional Trader Joe's advent calendar for us and for the cats (thanks Tom!). After the third or fourth chocolate, Harper declared the chocolate "not that great. The chocolate coins are better. Can I have another one of those?"

Harper made her banner letters, but we have yet to put them up on a string and hang them over the mantle.

Added one more string around our Little Free Library.

Monthly Cratejoy box arrived from GammaJane. Harper raced through the book!

Have you changed out your air filters lately? This was five months of dust/dirt/cat hair!! Yowza.

Special surprise breakfast! #lucky

Our neighbors pulled up with this behind their Jeep and I leaped outside, mask on, to look at it. I love these little trailer campers - this one has a bathroom! It is soooo nice. As you may recall, we are not great at camping, so something like this might be way more fun. But that's a big ask from Santa, so we'll keep dreaming.

The week ended like this on Sunday night after all the pandemic birthday fun - wholesome family evening. Yes, Harper is eating pumpkin pie and finishing her cheeseburger all at the same time.

PS: I won the game of LIFE.