Christmas 2019

Wild winds, rain blowing in through all the windows, branches flying. The chicken coop was flooded and I looked under the house, where it was dry, to find 23 sets of chicken eyeballs staring back at me. We have 2 chickens. I put some food under there and didn't ask them any questions.

This is as close to a snow storm as we get, so it was a good atmosphere for roast beef and flaming puddings.

Christmas went off without a hitch, if you don't count chasing sneaky-footed children back into bed all night as a hitch. By 9am the floor was glittering with Legos like a scene from Die Hard. I would have stayed on the couch where it was safe, but I had a new electric milk frother and needed to make elaborate latte art. Picked my way through the mess like a goat, dumped a big pile of hot milk foam into my coffee. Felt very proud.

Back at work now, exhausted, still sick, dropping tissues out of my pockets and cuddling a bottle of hand sanitizer. Thinking about the painting I've been waiting to work on; a slightly-wilty carnation from Thanksgiving.

It is fully dead now, but I took a picture for touch-ups before throwing it away. I'm eyeballing the Christmas floral arrangement my aunt picked up, and planning to steal some of their bodies once they've died a bit. Not-so-fresh flowers are more interesting.

You know what I did NOT get for Christmas? A neck ruff. Now, I did not actually tell anyone in my family I wanted a neck ruff, and I was too embarrassed to put one on my wish list, so this should be a surprise to no one. But still.

Maybe next year.