I took down our Christmas tree on Monday. Maybe later than usual, but then there was nothing usual about the 2020 holidays. I’m not going to rate it as worse or better or anywhere in-between, I think different sums it up. Hubby and I stayed the blazes home alone, no holiday feast or visitors, putting off the traditional family dinner for later this year or if need be, next Christmas. Surely by then we will be edging more to the end side of COVID, fingers, toes and legs crossed.
As far as COVID-19 is concerned, I won’t complain. Hubby and I take it one day at a time because that is all anyone can do. Being introverts, we see little difference in our lives and are happy to be in our home where we are safe and where the heart is plentiful.
I’ve been working at lot at the shop. What we offer is arguably an essential service considering the orders going out the door. We aren’t open for instore business but mail order deliveries to the post office on Friday and doorstep pickups are constant. The lead up to Christmas was wild, and I never even took the time to decorate the shop for the season. Although no one was getting through the door, they could look through the window and see it lacked the usual Christmas charm. As I drove away from the store each evening, I looked guiltily at the bare windows and hoped people would confuse a bit of the Cosmic Hippie flash next door as part of mine.
My home tree, set up in the living room almost two weeks before the 25th sat undecorated until Christmas Day because I was too exhausted to address it. I threw on a few sets of lights, arranging them hap-hazardly so that they were strung irregularly and didn’t reach the bottom branches, but hey, there was sparkle from the middle up and that was the perfect amount. The tree stood in front of our double living room windows, and from the road it was bare and dark on the backside with lights only on the front, but I figured people driving by at 50 klicks, shouldn’t have time to notice. “It is what it is” my son would say. It’s not like anyone was going to be in our house to see it and the dogs didn’t care. By the time I was out of my tired funk, decorating the tree seemed like a waste of time when it would probably get the heave-ho sometime after New Years. It looked a bit sad during the day when the lights are tiny sparks of colour overwhelmed by the mass of greenery, but in the nighttime, it put on a grand performance.
The shop was closed from Christmas Eve to January 4th to recharge our batteries. The run up to Christmas led to working many nights till 2:00 am, and during the day we were rushed off our feet as people called last minute to have things picked up or shipped out. I really think most believe our shelves are filled to the brim like an Amazon warehouse, but in a small, handcraft business reality, we make items as the orders come in. Right now, stocking shelves takes second seat while we are closed to walk in traffic. We have no time for making inventory to sit on a shelf as the demand for kits, wool and patterns have us working like elves day and night to fill orders.
We weren’t there to hear it, but the shop phone rung off the wall over the holidays, messages left on the machine went back to Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Boxing Day, and everyday through to January 4th, some not only calling the shop but also messaging me on FB and reaching me through emails, wondering where we are. My phone never stopped pinging all through the holidays with questions and orders. Facebook and messenger make it impossible to escape work, and after the Christmas rush, I felt a bit beaten up and needed time to rest and heal. I guess Amazon and social media keeps everyone plugged in and available 24/7 but this gal is an old dinosaur that likes her days off and evenings home for personal time, although that seems pretty much extinct these days. Ha-ha, it’s 10:50 PM and a customer just pinged me on my phone, I’ll be right back…….
We didn’t make a turkey for Christmas dinner. We scaled it down with two chickens to share with the pups. I made dressing and cranberry sauce, our favourites but the rest was regular fare. No fancy dressed table or Christmas crackers either. We happily ate off of our TV trays in front of the television like a bunch of retired old farts.
I chilled over the holidays, pretty much living in my jammies, watched mindless TV, hubby and I completed four puzzles, some lasting into the wee hours of the morning, going to bed at 5:00 AM just because there wasn’t any work the next day. It seemed like a lovely retirement kind of thing and in doing that I discovered a cure for insomnia. Napping throughout the day and staying up ridiculously late. It was a real pleasure not struggling for sleep, tossing and turning and being frustrated. Living the nocturnal life seems natural for me and I never find it difficult to nap in the daytime to make up the eight hours, unlike my bed, I fall asleep in a chair as soon as my butt hits it.
I stuffed my face with Christmas goodies, those treats I buy only at Christmas. Caramel popcorn and chips and dip are a childhood memory I drag into the present each year. I love oranges and grapes by the mouthful, chocolates and fudge, all things that will shave a few years off at the end but I’m not going to worry about it. Life has never held any guarantees and with COVID thrown into the mix, heck, eat the cake first.
Hubby and I ate a lot of fruitcake. It was my mom’s recipe I accidentally discovered while looking through my recipe box for the English Batter card to deep fry some haddock. It’s the same scratch, English batter recipe the Red Buoy used when I worked there as a teenager, long before the add water mix replaced it. It is delicious and because its winter, it’s a good time to inject a bit of extra fat into our diet.
So, I made fruit cakes (recipe is in the previous blog) for hubby and I learned to love it as well, although I prefer it without the rum. Somehow, we went through 6 cakes, a part of one was a gift for auntie and the rest ended up as crumbs in the tin, starting with a slice for breakfast and then kept it up throughout the day and finished the last one this week. I have enough ingredients to make four more and hopefully cache them away until next year. I’m not that optimistic they will survive but if not, I can make more in the fall.
So, its 2021 and I am hopeful for everyone to have a better year, one with diminished COVID, family gatherings, good health and prosperity. The shop is thriving and I’m so lucky to have a great team in Deborah and Shane. We look forward to fulfilling your wants and needs with our beautiful products so y’all can hook on!
Take care, be well.
The above design is available on our Seasonal Designs page as a pattern, but it made a cute card as well.
As far as COVID-19 is concerned, I won’t complain. Hubby and I take it one day at a time because that is all anyone can do. Being introverts, we see little difference in our lives and are happy to be in our home where we are safe and where the heart is plentiful.
I’ve been working at lot at the shop. What we offer is arguably an essential service considering the orders going out the door. We aren’t open for instore business but mail order deliveries to the post office on Friday and doorstep pickups are constant. The lead up to Christmas was wild, and I never even took the time to decorate the shop for the season. Although no one was getting through the door, they could look through the window and see it lacked the usual Christmas charm. As I drove away from the store each evening, I looked guiltily at the bare windows and hoped people would confuse a bit of the Cosmic Hippie flash next door as part of mine.
My home tree, set up in the living room almost two weeks before the 25th sat undecorated until Christmas Day because I was too exhausted to address it. I threw on a few sets of lights, arranging them hap-hazardly so that they were strung irregularly and didn’t reach the bottom branches, but hey, there was sparkle from the middle up and that was the perfect amount. The tree stood in front of our double living room windows, and from the road it was bare and dark on the backside with lights only on the front, but I figured people driving by at 50 klicks, shouldn’t have time to notice. “It is what it is” my son would say. It’s not like anyone was going to be in our house to see it and the dogs didn’t care. By the time I was out of my tired funk, decorating the tree seemed like a waste of time when it would probably get the heave-ho sometime after New Years. It looked a bit sad during the day when the lights are tiny sparks of colour overwhelmed by the mass of greenery, but in the nighttime, it put on a grand performance.
The shop was closed from Christmas Eve to January 4th to recharge our batteries. The run up to Christmas led to working many nights till 2:00 am, and during the day we were rushed off our feet as people called last minute to have things picked up or shipped out. I really think most believe our shelves are filled to the brim like an Amazon warehouse, but in a small, handcraft business reality, we make items as the orders come in. Right now, stocking shelves takes second seat while we are closed to walk in traffic. We have no time for making inventory to sit on a shelf as the demand for kits, wool and patterns have us working like elves day and night to fill orders.
We weren’t there to hear it, but the shop phone rung off the wall over the holidays, messages left on the machine went back to Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Boxing Day, and everyday through to January 4th, some not only calling the shop but also messaging me on FB and reaching me through emails, wondering where we are. My phone never stopped pinging all through the holidays with questions and orders. Facebook and messenger make it impossible to escape work, and after the Christmas rush, I felt a bit beaten up and needed time to rest and heal. I guess Amazon and social media keeps everyone plugged in and available 24/7 but this gal is an old dinosaur that likes her days off and evenings home for personal time, although that seems pretty much extinct these days. Ha-ha, it’s 10:50 PM and a customer just pinged me on my phone, I’ll be right back…….
We didn’t make a turkey for Christmas dinner. We scaled it down with two chickens to share with the pups. I made dressing and cranberry sauce, our favourites but the rest was regular fare. No fancy dressed table or Christmas crackers either. We happily ate off of our TV trays in front of the television like a bunch of retired old farts.
I chilled over the holidays, pretty much living in my jammies, watched mindless TV, hubby and I completed four puzzles, some lasting into the wee hours of the morning, going to bed at 5:00 AM just because there wasn’t any work the next day. It seemed like a lovely retirement kind of thing and in doing that I discovered a cure for insomnia. Napping throughout the day and staying up ridiculously late. It was a real pleasure not struggling for sleep, tossing and turning and being frustrated. Living the nocturnal life seems natural for me and I never find it difficult to nap in the daytime to make up the eight hours, unlike my bed, I fall asleep in a chair as soon as my butt hits it.
I stuffed my face with Christmas goodies, those treats I buy only at Christmas. Caramel popcorn and chips and dip are a childhood memory I drag into the present each year. I love oranges and grapes by the mouthful, chocolates and fudge, all things that will shave a few years off at the end but I’m not going to worry about it. Life has never held any guarantees and with COVID thrown into the mix, heck, eat the cake first.
Hubby and I ate a lot of fruitcake. It was my mom’s recipe I accidentally discovered while looking through my recipe box for the English Batter card to deep fry some haddock. It’s the same scratch, English batter recipe the Red Buoy used when I worked there as a teenager, long before the add water mix replaced it. It is delicious and because its winter, it’s a good time to inject a bit of extra fat into our diet.
So, I made fruit cakes (recipe is in the previous blog) for hubby and I learned to love it as well, although I prefer it without the rum. Somehow, we went through 6 cakes, a part of one was a gift for auntie and the rest ended up as crumbs in the tin, starting with a slice for breakfast and then kept it up throughout the day and finished the last one this week. I have enough ingredients to make four more and hopefully cache them away until next year. I’m not that optimistic they will survive but if not, I can make more in the fall.
So, its 2021 and I am hopeful for everyone to have a better year, one with diminished COVID, family gatherings, good health and prosperity. The shop is thriving and I’m so lucky to have a great team in Deborah and Shane. We look forward to fulfilling your wants and needs with our beautiful products so y’all can hook on!
Take care, be well.
The above design is available on our Seasonal Designs page as a pattern, but it made a cute card as well.
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