Sorry dear blog land, I have not been very present these last few days. Every time I go to write, something else happens, and apparently, I lack the discipline to not get distracted! And all that Christmas prep, it started with a ridiculous amount of baking, and then I kept giving it away so had to do more. My biscotti were quite popular!
Then came the winter solstice, and we did that in style up here in upper-middle Alberta! Not only was the night long and the day short – we had a big deep freeze. I got up in the morning and our outdoor thermometer said minus 37.5 Celsius. My perverse self rather enjoys these dramatic moments of nature as our part of the world goes into the darkness with long elongated midday shadows. And it was freezing and so cozy to be inside. I count my blessings knowing that others are homeless in our communities.
I must not sound too excited about the weather as people all around us in North America got record snow dumps and everything ground to a standstill, airports, roads, and ferries on the coasts. Passengers sleeping in airports and dangerous with people stuck in cars and without power. We just got the deep deep freeze, which we get every year and deal with, ho hum!
But the strange thing about the solstice is that, indeed, now the days are getting longer, but not symmetrically. It does stay a few minutes lighter in the afternoons, however, the mornings keep getting darker longer. Not sure for how long this goes on, but at the moment, breakfast can be a beautiful candlelight event!
And then there is the whole Christmas thing, oh count me in! This year I have added to my Christmas movie viewing, Christmas-themed Whodunits mystery novels. I have been downloading eBook versions. (This renewed love affair with my e-reader is all to do with my preparation to launch my novel Pardon My Camino. Things are coming together. New expected date of arrival: sometime in February…..available in paper and e-version! ) Please excuse that completely self-serving diversion, but had to give you a book update.
Christmas hits western society like a great mighty collective tsunami. This shake-up upturns our budgets, our eating, and our sleeping; we party and give gifts like no other time of the year. And the butter, can you believe the kilos we use? I see the empty section in the supermarket coolers where, for the rest of the year, the butter calmly reposes. I have done my part – I keep coming home with blocks of the yellow stuff. I presume the dairy industry anticipates all this, there must be refrigerated stockpiles of it ready to burst forth come December.
The music, the artwork, the clever and beautiful Christmas cards and decorations. We all get at it in some form or another. Our creative souls soar! We connect with friends, maybe only once a year, but that is precious and important.
Now it is that week between Christmas and New Year. I read today that some people call this Dead Week, dead! No no, what a thought. If you are lucky enough to not be working this week, it is perfect as there seem very few expectations and we can cruise on leftovers and work out how our Christmas gifts work (I got a brain game set…..hmmm, getting help from the grandkiddies.)
New Year is coming. I am not such a New Year person, but we have been invited, and that will be just lovely.
Happy new year to us all!
A fun read to hear how your holidays went Julia. Butter here is sooooo expensive. I have to make a special trip to Costco to get it at an ‘ almost’ acceptable cost. Congrats on your book coming out. This is truly wonderful. See you waited for the furor over the ‘Spare’ book to die down before releasing yours. Looking forward to a great read and to see how you changed things from last I read.
Glad you at least have access to butter at a somewhat OK price, the alternative is a cow up on your back pasture hill there! Well I see