Tuesday - 263rd

December! How cool is that! In fact, I'll take that literally: it's very cool. We wake up to 18F (-8C) outside. Crunchy earth, frozen waters.

But so very sunny. Isn't it true that many things can be tough or discouraging, but you have one glorious big ticket item -- like sunshine -- and your whole mood is given such boost.

We eat in the sun room. Ed, I'm ready.

 

I know that I said I'd be rejoining the bubble with the young family in December, but that doesn't happen until tomorrow evening. We're following the 14 day isolation requirement (plus testing) literally. To the hour. So tomorrow, not today. [As we approach their 14th day, there is rumor that the CDC guidelines are changing as we speak. A shorter period may be sufficient. But the details are sketchy and we are close to our 14 day goal anyway.]

I do have a sense of urgency today. If there's stuff that needs to be done, this is the day to finish it up before I get very busy again. So, one final run through online shopping. And yes, I'm satisfied that all the orders went out and if I'm lucky, all deliveries will be made before Christmas. Maybe. Things have been iffy lately, but I surely am sympathetic to those who have to play the elves and get our stuff delivered so very rapidly. We just have to sit tight. They do all the tough work. I am grateful.

 

Once more I coax Ed to do something active with me in the afternoon.

 

It's not that cold! -- I proclaim. Indeed, it's a couple of degrees above freezing.

You want to play tennis?
Like, outside? On the court?

Why not?
Because it's a couple of degrees above freezing!

We try it. At our local deserted, forested tennis courts.

At first I am so tightly wound up, possibly from the cold, the winter clothes, the absurdity of our game, or possibly because we haven't played since summer, that I can hardly return anything. But in time, the tension leaves the elbow, the shoulder, the leg, the other leg and disappears somewhere in those tall pines behind us. I can't say I would want to do this every day, but today, a wintry game of tennis felt just right.

I return in time for a Zoom call with my now southern (New Mexico and Florida) friends.

 

As I listen to them recount their holiday weekend, I'm thinking -- there is something remarkable about being able to eat at least some of your meals outside in December. I have pangs of wistfulness when I listen to their description of the weather there. But only for a few minutes. I have this soy candle with an amazing aroma of apple cider burning right now, and another one that promises to bring a faint whiff of pine boughs right into the farmhouse living space. Neither would have the pleasurable impact had we warm weather in December. The Danish or Norwegian hygge (cozy comfort) only makes sense because it's so damn cold in both places starting right about now.

It's soup weather, wouldn't you say? Time to take out the yellow pot and stir up the veggies and beans and spices in a chicken broth. Winter food. Just right for December.

Late, very late, a big box arrives with any number of holiday odds and ends, including the tree lights. I can end the first day of December with the tree.  And yes, it does make the walls glow with purple light. Utterly fantastic.