Good morning, friends. Solstice blessings to my fellow nature goddessy-types! May the rebirth of the sun bring warmth and joy to your homes. How are you welcoming the light this Midwinter?

First things first: for those of you keeping score at home, I still do not have a dishwasher. Remember how we were supposed to get our dishwasher delivered, finally, last Saturday? And the delivery company no-call-no-showed us? So we rescheduled for this Thursday? Yeah, about that. They did show up, but they showed up with a dishwasher that was so badly dented the door wouldn’t close. Then in the process of removing our old burnt one, they broke our water and the only way to fix it was to “install” the non-functional new unit. So now I have a dishwasher that is just a cube of useless metal and plastic in my kitchen. I guess that’s a marginal improvement over the smoked-out ruin, but I’m still hand-washing everything and eating off of paper plates. And the dishwasher our landlord selected is backordered – of course – so we won’t get a new one until January. How very 2020, right?

Anyway. The rest of the weekend was a slight improvement over the burning, howling rage that was Thursday, but that’s not saying much. I had big plans for a productive weekend and I did reasonably well, although I didn’t get to everything I wanted to do. My top-priority “A” goals were to finish organizing the guest bedroom and wrap and package up the gifts that have to be mailed (just Rebecca, my brother and sister-in-law, and my friend Susan this year). I did get to both of those, and I cleaned the dining room, finished my Christmas shopping, and got started on wrapping Steve’s and the kids’ gifts. So – not bad! I didn’t make my “reach” goal of a completely clean house and soaking in a reward bubble bath by Sunday evening, but I sort of knew that was a long shot. It’s hard to have a really productive weekend when someone interrupts you every five minutes to ask for a snack or a water bottle, but I got done what I really needed to do. And we even made it out for a hike on Sunday, although that was kind of a bust – the kids dragged their feet, lagged behind us bickering, fell in the mud and were generally unruly and unmanageable, so we ended up having to cut our hike short. Womp, womp. Seeing as our weekly trail time is pretty much the only thing that keeps me sane, that doesn’t bode well going into Christmas week.

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Reading. Slowed down on the reading speed this week – busy, tired, and fell into the doomscrolling trap a bit. Oh, and there was one night of hours-long phone conversations, first with my mom and then with my mom’s BFF (who is basically my second mom) – no regrets on that front! When I did read, I read good stuff. Spent most of the week over Silent Nights, which was a lot of fun. As with all short-story collections – I say this every time – there were hits and misses. But on balance, it was great! The weekend was mostly devoted to The Twelve Birds of Christmas, which FINALLY arrived, yay! What a fun and fascinating book. I finally finished it up on Sunday evening, and spent the rest of the night with Winter Solstice. I timed it so I’d be reading it on the actual solstice, so I’m feeling pretty pleased with myself.

Watching. We’d gotten behind on The Mandalorian, so we’re catching up now – just the season finale to go. My high school BFF’s husband recently wrote on Facebook that The Mandalorian is the Star Wars content he’s always wanted – and I have to agree. It’s exciting, pacey, diverse, and the content feels really fresh (I liked the new Star Wars movies as much as everyone, but they did seem to repeat the plot points from the original trilogy). We have enjoyed every episode and they just seem to get better and better.

Listening. The usual mix. The highlight was the “A Christie for Christmas” episode of Shedunnit (that show is SO good, you guys), but I also loved a warm and validating episode of The Mom Hour about guilt-free opting out of holiday-related mom pressure. And I mixed in some music; I just needed some heart-pounding bass. Some R.E.M., some New Pornographers. (Side note: I do wish they had a different name. They’re one of my favorite bands – not quite up to Decemberists level, but close. But I can’t bring myself to say “New Pornographers” in front of the family, even though there’s nothing at all inappropriate about their music, so I call them “A.C. Newman and Neko Case” – after the lead singing duo.)

Making. The best making of the week was a few good shots of a new winter visitor to our backyard nyjer feeder – a white-throated sparrow! As I said when I emailed the pictures to my mom, mother-in-law, aunt and family friend, I’ve seen enough house sparrows to last me a lifetime but these country sparrows are welcome at my feeders anytime. This one was a new bird for my life list, which is always exciting. In other making news, I made the usual piles and piles of work product (despite feeling a combination of overwhelmed and unappreciated, which is a bad combination). Also made a cleaned-out guest room, a dent in my Christmas wrapping, and a really delicious slow-simmered beefless (made with Gardein) stew on Sunday evening. Yum.

Moving. Ha! So I do have something to report! In addition to our abortive hike on Sunday, I did manage to squeeze several workouts into my busy week of brief-writing. No outdoor runs: we had what passes for a snowstorm in D.C. earlier in the week, and my already-hilly neighborhood is currently a skating rink. Between the icy conditions and the cars that go screaming down my street, I was scared to run. (Steve did make it out for a few runs; he’s braver than me.) I hit the treadmill, though! Back before the pandemic, I had joined Peloton. I had no intention of buying a $3,500 exercise bike (and still don’t) but my office gym had one, so I figured I could ride it. But before I figured out how to lower the seat, COVID happened and we all got sent home for the duration. So I let my Peloton “membership” languish – until I recently realized that they have other workouts available and re-upped my membership last week. So far I’ve done a HIIT treadmill workout and a holiday-themed cardio bootcamp. I’m a little embarrassed to admit how much fun it is.

Blogging. I promised you a more positive week this week, and I will deliver! Good-news stories from 2020 on Wednesday, and the final tally of my Christmas-themed reading for the month on Friday (before I move on to reading all those books I’m hoping Santa will deliver – I’ve been a very good girl this year!). Check in with me then…

Loving. You know what has been giving me life lately? The proliferation of warm, positive, and validating posts on social media (I know, right?) as this ridiculous year winds down. Everyone from Sisters Village (one of my favorite astrology follows) to Adirondack hiking accounts I follow is coming up with a variation of this message: it’s okay if you didn’t reach every goal this year; it’s okay if you don’t feel much in the holiday spirit; it’s okay if you want to hang your twinkle lights eight weeks early; it’s okay if you don’t want to hang twinkle lights at all; it’s okay if you’re not really okay – you’re alive, you’re here. I think we’re all in this space right now of feeling like we’re killing it, pandemic-style, some days and wanting to hide in the closet with the boxed wine other days. (No? Just me?) I don’t need the internet to tell me it’s okay that I am all over the place right now. But I sure am glad the message has shifted from the screechy LET’S MAKE MEMORIES AND ENJOY THIS BONUS FAMILY TIME from back in March to December’s hey, things are not good and you can have those feelings and it’s valid. Bit of a downer? Not intentional. Sorry.

Asking. What are you reading this week?