In the Bleak Midwinter

 Since the last Sunday of December is usually when I do my entire year in review, the first Sunday in January is when I talk about both Christmas and New Year's. And I must say, two weeks ago seems like forever! We had two major holidays since then, so we'll see what I can remember about it.

December 21 was the solstice, but it was also the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn. We could see it above our garage, but my dad also set up our spotting scope, and when I looked through that, I was able to see Jupiter's moons. My mom and I wanted to set up our telescope, but my dad for some reason didn't want to and had a very cynical attitude about it. He set it up (I guess because he didn't trust us), but he knowingly didn't set it up completely stable, so it was too shaky to be useful.  

You can see it above our garage.

On December 23, I went to Benchmark Books, a bookstore specializing in Mormon writings from all faith perspectives, to get books for one of my classes for next semester. I'm taking an undergrad Utah history class, but as a grad student I have to read six extra books, and I had a long list of books I could choose from. I opted to read some books that I already have, but I went to Benchmark to get some others on my radar. This summer, I heard about this new book This Is the Plate, and I wanted to read it, and fortunately it was on the list of books I could choose from. It's certainly the most interesting (to me) of the books I will be reading. I'm a proud Utahn, and I'm kind of a foodie, so it's important to me. But it's especially important because one of the editors, Eric Eliason, has probably written more about Pioneer Day than anyone else. (Of course, I hope to surpass him one day.)

We have been very good at not socializing during the pandemic, though we have included my sister and my niece (but I think it's still been less often than pre-pandemic times). So they came over for our Christmas Eve. I finally made it through my entire Christmas playlist of 1,463 songs that day, after starting just after Thanksgiving. We made and decorated gingerbread cookies.

We also read Christmas trivia cards that I have. (I dominated, obviously.)

That evening, I watched Gremlins, which I hadn't seen since my brother showed it to me when I was five years old (!), and I was surprised that I still remembered the theme music. Well, I did see the beginning of the movie again when I was ten or eleven, but I think I remembered the music from my young kid days.

On Christmas morning, my sister and niece came over again to open presents. I got an inflatable paddleboard, which I'm excited to use in the summer; Easter dishes, since I don't have many of those; and TS's folklore on vinyl. Then I made gingerbread pancakes.

My mom and I took extra pies to my grandparents, making sure we kept our distance and wore masks. Then I went on a walk in the dark; it was fun to walk past all the lit houses. I should do that more often at Christmas, at least when it's not icy.

I couldn't help but feeling a little sad about Christmas this year, but I had to tell myself it's perfectly OK to be sad about holidays during a pandemic. Hopefully we'll have better holidays later this year.

My parents wanted to keep the Christmas stuff up through New Year's. To me, that makes New Year's less special, but oh well. But I did put up a few New Year decorations.

Jimmy has been needy and affectionate lately. Sometimes he's been sleeping on my bed the entire night! Here he is sitting on my New Year pillowcase. I just adore him.

On New Year's Eve, I wanted to support small businesses by getting a New Year kit from Brownies! Brownies! Brownies! I like that business, but I didn't love this particular brownie, especially since the sprinkles were literally hard to eat.

I found chestnuts at WinCo, and I've never had them before, so I decided to try them for New Year's Eve. You have to heat them up in order to peel them. Apparently a blight in the early twentieth century wiped them out from North America, which is ostensibly the reason they're not so common now (except in Christmas songs). But I think a more likely reason is that they are a lot of work to cook and peel for a small amount of mediocre nut. They had an umami flavor. 

My family put together a puzzle and played Drawful before midnight. I went outside after midnight to see and hear others' fireworks. Again, I felt sad about this New Year, but that's to be expected in a pandemic.

Of all the holidays, New Year's Day has the fewest food traditions, but apparently in the south it's traditional to eat black-eyed peas on January 1. So I decided to make some, the first time I ever did so. The recipe was good (even without the recommended ham or bacon), but it was a little heavy on thyme. 

I got a little jealous: why don't we have our own food traditions? Then I remembered that I just bought a book about the topic. But then I thought, why don't we have our own holiday traditions? Then I remembered that we have our own holiday. Don't forget what you have!

Usually on New Year's Day, my extended family goes out to eat to commemorate my grandparents' first date in 1959, but that couldn't happen this year. So we had a Zoom meeting with everyone instead. It was mostly a good thing, though there were some awkward parts where people overshared or didn't mute. (I don't think those who overshared read this blog, so I don't feel bad saying it.)

My only goal for the New Year is to finish running on every street on North Salt Lake. I don't necessarily have to run on every street in 2021, just the ones I haven't done before. But I don't plan to run in gated communities or on the freeway. I'm undecided about private streets (like condos or trailer parks), which use blue signs instead of green. During the winter, I have less motivation to run (since the trails are snowy/icy/muddy), so hopefully this should give me incentive. I'm also excited to see all the obscure corners of my hometown.

I didn't really set any other new goals or resolutions because (1) I'm already doing well at the most important things, (2) the pandemic has made everything unpredictable, and (3) school is my top priority.

And now that the holidays are over, we are in my absolute least favorite time of the year. There is so little good going on: no trails, no late sunsets, no road trips, no major holidays (and the next one is the worst one), no food trucks, no fresh produce, no lakes. It always takes me until March to quit being sad that Christmas is over. But I am looking forward to tomorrow's statehood celebration.