Every year since 2010 I’ve done a series of December diaries focusing on a variety of seasonal topics ranging from music to food to ugly sweaters. (Full disclosure: I did ONE Seasonal diary in 2008, and 2009 (eleven years ago?! time flies!!) was the first December K2 was with us so I was a little distracted :-)).
Despite the fact it’s 2020 and it feels like everything is different, I can’t ignore this theme, so let’s get seasonal! Don’t worry if Christmas isn’t your thing- while my personal December perspective is primarily secular but culturally Christian-based with a vibrant dose of earth-centered Winter Solstice mixed in thanks to almost two decades as a Unitarian Universalist, these diaries are for everyone who is alive and reading this. In other words, if there’s a holiday in December that makes you happy, that you mark differently than all the other days, or that (in any other year but this one) involves negotiating about who brings what food… or even if there isn’t... this is a place for you!
Last week’s diary got us caffeinated with Christmas Blend, and advance notice that next week will be a Cookie Swap, but tonight I thought we should acknowledge that this IS 2020, and it is NOT like all the other years in ways none of us saw coming. And yet…
Grab a beverage (umm, the coffee might be from last week, so I suggest maybe NOT that...) and hop below the Story Break!
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Almost exactly one year ago, I penned a seasonal diary entitled Coping w/December Stress. That Brillig of long-ago then had no idea what December 2020 would look like, but had good ideas of how to deal with stress. I suspect had she known, she’d have given me this advice:
Keep the traditions and regular things you can, and make new ones when you cannot do so safely
Here’s just a bit of what we know so far about what we’ll be keeping and what will be adapting:
Casa Brillig shared our Christmas wish lists with one another, just like always. The mail-order elves have been busier than in some years past, and our lists include fewer “experience” wishes because we don’t know what will be possible.
We went out last weekend and found a tree at the same place we’ve gone for many years. We haven’t yet decorated it, but that’s because K1 has been finishing her grad school finals and as of tonight is officially On Break and available to trim the tree!
We won’t be attending Solstice and Christmas Eve services as we have for, well, as long as we’ve been UUs. We won’t light candles by passing on the flame from one person to another until everyone in the sanctuary is glowing, then dim the lights and sing Silent Night. We will, however, be picking up our Solstice and Christmas Eve supply bags from church next Sunday, in a safe drive-thru manner, and those bags will contain all the items we need to participate in online versions of those services. They won’t be the same, but we will find meaning.
We will have the traditional Christmas Eve fondue. It will be decadent, delicious cheese in one pot, and beef broth for cooking filet mignon slices in the other. We will have sourdough bread, apples, shrimp, and mushrooms. We will even have keto bread, for yours truly (thank you King Arthur Flour for developing keto flour!) What we will NOT have is our closest friends, who’ve shared this tradition with us for fifteen years. However, they’ll have their own fondues and hopefully we’ll zoom a bit to share cheer.
We will have Christmas Dinner as we did Thanksgiving… just us four. We don’t yet know what we’ll have, and maybe we’ll do something utterly new.
We have new plans to watch Miracle on 34th Street and It’s a Wonderful Life as a family, because K2 hasn’t seen EITHER movie and he quietly admitted he liked watching a movie together with us on Thanksgiving.
We have NO idea what New Year’s Eve will look like, but we don’t have a usual activity so whatever we do will be This Year’s Tradition. Which is traditional :).
How about you? Are there December traditions you’ll keep or adapt, and others that will sit out this year in favor of new ones that better fit 2020? Feel free to share in the comments, or revisit my 2019 topic of dealing with holiday stress.
Have some Grinch, Pentatonix style, and then take a look at todays Top Comments, Mojo and Pictures!
TOP COMMENTS
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From Youffraita:
Frank Pedraza wins the intert00bz today. Buffalo2 gets a nod, as well. Both are from Barbara Morrill’s Mitch McConnell finally admits that Joe Biden won in a landslide last month.
TOP MOJO
Top Mojo for yesterday, December 14th 2020, first comments and tip jars excluded. Thank you mik for the mojo magic! For those of you interested in How Top Mojo Works, please see his diary on FAQing Top Mojo.
TOP PICTURES
Top Pictures for yesterday, December 14th 2020. Click any picture to be taken to the full comment or picture. Thank you jotter!