Yikes, It's December

And, that means, and it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas outside our apt door.

We hope that everyone who celebrated Thanksgiving had as nice a turkey fest as possible, despite the circumstances this year of no travel, limited gatherings, social distancing and so on.

Our at home celebration of two included roast turkey with sides of green bean casserole (once a year favorite), mashed sweet potatoes, stuffing, gravy, homemade cranberry relish. And, home cooking meant leftovers for soup, pot pie, and sandwiches this week. Our holiday was capped off with pumpkin pie and egg nog as we watched The Grinch That Stole Christmas. (Doesn't everyone do this Thanksgiving night after watching A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving?)

While it wasn't a perfect holiday, it was as good as it gets in this year of you-know-what. We were thankful for the well being of loved ones, friends and ourselves. Video chats and phone calls made up (somewhat) for missed time together.

HUMBUG! Our decorating plans had included a live tree this year until apt management notified residents that the 2020 policy for live trees had changed and they would no longer be allowed due to insurance and potential fire-related issues. We suspect that it's also as more folks will be at home and decorating. Disappointed, but not deterred from having a tree, our newly bought non-live tree which will be put it up and decorated later this week. 

That said, the exterior apt decos were put out over the weekend. Those holiday cards are not early ones received this year, but some of last year's that were saved and recycled for decos this year. (It's always nice to see them a second year.)

Speaking of trees, the forest of cork, pine cone, and pom-pom trees were handmade by myself this year. It was a new project to try and at home time was very available this year. Pinecones were collected locally and given a white coating of simulated snow.

This is my entry for the annual door wreath competition. It will be hung later this week. Entries must be handmade and are voted upon by residents. This year, my theme was a pine cone and snowman. Last year's cork wreath entry won a 2nd place $50 gift card. The competition is only for a door wreath and not exterior decorations (sigh).

I'm falling behind on blog reading this week since one of my favorite pre-holiday activities is writing cards. That's what I'm doing while watching listening to Netflix holiday films. If you would like to be included on the list (mine, not Santa's) to receive a snail-mail 📬 card, send your name and address to the email on the blog and you'll be added.

How is your holiday planning/decorating going this year?