This year has been hard and long and I have lost most sense of time. We had previously been planning on traveling south to visit my family for about a week or so. My partner and I and family all decided it would be best not to travel down because we would have to stop multiple times along the route and someone would have to come into our apartment multiple times to cat-sit. My immediate family is also currently in a pod with my grandmas and my aunt. We decided it would be best not to put any risk and do a Christmas in July when it is a little safer for us personally.

With just the two of us, plus the cat, it has been hard to make it feel like Christmas. We have been doing the regular work and maneuver around the pandemic as best we can do order food or go on long walks. We recently had our first snow storm of the year. So at least it will be a snowy Christmas. In that spirit we are preparing for Christmas and making the best of it we can.

One, we are making sure we do a deep purge of old clothes, especially, hats, coats, scarfs, and sweaters to donate to our city. Wave 2 and blizzards hitting at the same time is really bad and it seems like the most direct thing we can do immediately. As well as donating food each time we go grocery shopping.

Two, a lot of baking. We started with apple pie. We are doing two batches of cookies in the next few days. We basically are doing our best to make the apartment smell like Christmas: cinnamon, chocolate, pork cracklings, garlic rosemary, etc.

Three, Christmas entertainment. We have been starting on the Christmas movies before bed. We don’t listen to a lot of music together but in the car it has mostly been orchestral carols just trying to set the mood.

I hope you all are enjoying whatever holiday you celebrate and are able to take sometime for yourself to relax.