Here are the questions to this week's Wednesday Hodgepodge, Volume 400. 400!! Answer on your own blog then hop back here tomorrow to share answers with all of Santa's elves. See you there-
1. I feel like episode 400 cannot go without comment. That's a whole lot of Hodgepodging folks. 2000 questions if my math is right. So, what's something you feel like you do 400 times a week?
2. Tell us where you were and something about what your life looked like in the year 2000?
3. Do you like cinnamon? What's something you make and enjoy that calls for cinnamon? Of the cinnamon 'foods' listed which is your favorite-red hot cinnamon candies, cinnamon toast, cinnamon rolls, cinnamon toast crunch cereal, apple cinnamon oatmeal, churros, an Indian curry?
4. Does Christmas 2020 (or Hanukkah) look much like it has in years past, or is this year vastly different for you and your family? How so? How are you feeling about it all?
5. What's one thing you need or want to do before this year ends?
We have a wedding coming up in the not too distant future, and I'm not saying a whole lot about it beforehand because everyone has opinions and I don't want to hear yours concerning this-ha. Kidding. Only not really. It just seems like everyone is in each other's business these days, making judgements without all the facts, and it's exhausting. We're making the best decisions we can for our family and those decisions may be something different than what your family would opt for in similar circumstances, and that's okay. God bless America.
I don't know of any brides who picture hand sanitizer and face masks as important details to their day, but here we are and might as well embrace it. We know someone who was married last weekend, an event that looked a lot different than the way the couple imagined it would look when pre-Corona planning first began, yet still beautiful and so very meaningful. Maybe even more meaningful because of all it took to get there.
This is true of so many engaged couples in 2020. While re-imagining your wedding day is not the end of the world it is a disappointment that needs to be felt and processed. And then I think it needs to be tucked away in your heart and mind for some future date when God will remind you of the lessons learned in this strange season that need calling up in whatever new and challenging season you find yourself in.
That's how life seems to work, or how I think God works anyway. We can't always see the why of a hard thing when we're in the middle of it, but somewhere down life's road when we're faced with disappointment, we're struck by the memory of how we coped and even thrived 'back in the day'.
It's not easy organizing a wedding in the middle of all the crazy, but one of the good things that's come out of it I think is there are far fewer couples getting married right now 'on the fly'. Brides and grooms have to be all in to get married during a pandemic. There are umpteen hoops to jump through and you don't just decide one day to get married because you want a big bash with 200 of your closest friends. Not gonna happen in the age of Corona. There are restrictions and limits and you cannot have everything you dream of having on your special day because you need to consider numbers and spacing and the actual health and safety of your guests.
Weddings for the most part these days, are smaller more intimate affairs, and above all they seem more focused on the significance of what you're signing on for. In the year of Corona couples must ask themselves do we want to get married or do we want to have a wedding?
So you plan. You adjust your expectations and you look for all the bits of joy to be found along the way. This is perhaps one of the more challenging aspects of planning a wedding right now, people are not feeling particularly celebratory. We're cranky and depressed and tired. Some are sick and fearful. We're missing people we can't get near, and we're anxious about so very many things, the virus of course but also the general state of our nation.
Cue the joy.
It's what we need.
We need smiles that make your cheeks hurt, all the heart eye emojis, and wedding bells chiming because time doesn't stop. It marches on and we need to march with it. I was thinking about how pretty much all the large milestones in my life have been met...education, marriage, a career I enjoyed, birthing and raising children. In most ways this pandemic has not changed any of my long term plans. No we're not traveling like we might, nor are we seeing friends like we might, but there's nothing on the timetable of my life right now that needs to happen before I'm x years old.
The same can't be said for my daughter's generation, or those coming behind her or the ones just a little bit ahead. The under 55's want college degrees or to get a business off the ground, to marry, travel, have children, take that new job, earn that promotion, and time is very much a factor.
So you get married during a pandemic. A pandemic that might end in a year or be with us in one way or another for always. You look at the boy you love and want to spend the rest of your life with and you say I DO. While the day might not look exactly the way you imagined, I believe it's possible for it to look even better. To feel more magical. A precious memory made and cherished because in the middle of chaos you found joy.
And it's contagious.
You already know life will not always go according to plan, and still you take each other by the hand. You say come what may we're in this together and you mean it.
...and all through the house, not a creature was stirring...
Because it's 2020 and we're all home by our lonesomes spending too much time on the couch.
That's okay though. To quote another favorite Christmas rhyme, '....it comes without ribbons, it comes without tags, it comes without packages, boxes, or your whole entire extended family in the house...'
Something like that anyway.
Time is so strange this year. What isn't I guess, but I can't believe we celebrate Christmas just one week from today. The month of May felt like it lasted 347 days but wasn't it just September yesterday?
So are you ready? I'm mostly ready. Tracking package deliveries online like a mad woman, but kudos to the US mail, UPS, Fed Ex, Amazon, and anyone else managing the overload of boxes, bags, and envelopes happening currently. We're getting deliveries at six in the morning and nine o'clock at night too.
My house is decorated, but my dining room table isn't quite set and I'm hoping to get to that this weekend. I've been wrapping presents in there, but whoohoo! I think all my gifts are finally wrapped with the exception of one or two still set to arrive.
Do you still send Christmas cards? I love them, both the giving and receiving, and checking the mailbox every day in December makes me happy. I told hubs I know we're getting older because we've received a lot more traditional cards this year as opposed to photo cards.
Maybe the stupid you know what has something to do with that. Travel, family vacations, and gatherings of any sort were at a minimum, hence not as many photo ops. I really hope people don't stop sending cards altogether. Yes they're pricey and a bit of work to put together, but they are such a day brightener for the receiver.
In other Christmas-y news, I might need one of those 'workplace incident' signs for my kitchen...'it's been 12 hours since a Christmas cookie was eaten ...' I'm not the only one am I?
Hubs and I have watched most of our favorite Christmas movies and did you know Home Alone is 30 years old? 30! I think it holds up remarkably well in terms of humor and the sweetness of that last little scene with the neighbor still tugs at my heart.
Speaking of neighbors, we have brand new neighbors next door who we've bonded with over the fallen tree. They spend a lot of time in Florida and somehow in the course of conversation hubs mentioned how much we love stone crabs.
Fast forward to yesterday when we opened our front door to this-
An enormous box of fresh stone crab packed on ice straight from Joe's Stone Crab in Miami. Merry Christmas from the new neighbors...
Shouldn't we be the ones sending them something? Rest assured we picked every last one of these crab claws clean and they were delicious.
Unexpected thoughtfulness is such an absolute treat and the world needs more of it.
Christmas is coming and that's good news. The very best news in fact. It may be minus a few of the usual bells and whistles we all look forward to, but the baby in the manger never needed that anyway.
Wishing you all a holly jolly hope-filled weekend!
Welcome to another edition of the Wednesday Hodgepodge. If you've answered this week's questions add your link at the end of my post. And be sure to spread some holiday cheer by leaving a comment for the blogger linking before you. Here we go-
1. What's something about Christmas that most people like, but you don't? Elaborate.
The super early decorating. I don’t know that most people like this, but if the internet is to be believed (and it is, right?) then it certainly feels like we’re headed in that direction. Why the rush?
2. Tell us about one cherished tradition from your childhood and if you'll make it happen this year?
One of our mostcherished traditions is the Christmas morning picture on the stairs. My parents tortured my siblings and I with this one and hubs and I kept it going with our own girls. So eager to see what Santa brought but first! a picture in your jammies on the stairs. Wonder how my future son-in- law feels about this? We’re gonna find out in another ten days.
3. In 1941 FDR declared December 15th Bill of Rights Day. Citizens were encouraged to fly the flag and gather for prayers and other ceremonies as appropriate. Did you know this? Will you fly a flag? Can you name all the rights and protections guaranteed in the first ten amendments of the US Constitution? Of the ten, which two do you value most? If you need a list you'll find one here.
We’re a long way from this sort of encouragement from our government, aren’t we? I didn’t know there was a day in honor of the Bill of Rights, but I do know all ten. We always fly a flag here, but we’ve taken it down while the roofing repairs are underway.
My top two would be freedom of speech and freedom of religion, with freedom of the press not far behind. I think we’re seeing these being chipped away and it’s concerning.
4. Do you know someone named Bill? Tell us something about him? Is there a famous 'Bill' you'd like to meet?
I feel like everyone knows a Bill or two. We have a college friend named Bill, hubs worked for someone named Bill, and my brother’s best friend growing up is also a Bill. Still in touch with all these Bills.
Famous Bill I’d like to meet? Tops on my list would be Bill Bryson.
5. A step in the right direction, on the right track, bragging rights, be in the right place at the right time, get off on the right foot, right as rain, right side up, give your right arm for, have one's heart in the right place...choose a 'right' that applies to your life in some way in recent days and tell us how it's so.
I’d give my right arm to have working internet right now. We’re having four ginormous trees taken down and in the process they nicked the internet line. Bother.
Also maybe not my right arm, but no internet is such an aggravation. A first world aggravation, but annoying nonetheless. Trying to Hodgepodge from my phone so please excuse any typos or wonky formatting here today.
Here are the questions to this week's Wednesday Hodgepodge. Answer on your own blog, then hop back here tomorrow to share some Christmas cheer, aka link up to the party. See you there!
1. What's something about Christmas that most people like, but you don't? Elaborate.
2. Tell us about one cherished tradition from your childhood and if you'll make it happen this year?
3. In 1941 FDR declared December 15th Bill of Rights Day. Citizens were encouraged to fly the flag and gather for prayers and other ceremonies as appropriate. Did you know this? Will you fly a flag? Can you name all the rights and protections guaranteed in the first ten amendments of the US Constitution? Of the ten, which two do you value most? If you need a list you'll find one here.
4. Do you know someone named Bill? Tell us something about him? Is there a famous 'Bill' you'd like to meet?
5. A step in the right direction, on the right track, bragging rights, be in the right place at the right time, get off on the right foot, right as rain, right side up, give your right arm for, have one's heart in the right place...choose a 'right' that applies to your life in some way in recent days and tell us how it's so.
Welcome to the Wednesday Hodgepodge. Thanks for making time in this busy season to play along here. If you've answered this week's questions add your link at the end of my post. Then leave some holiday cheer in the form of a comment for the blogger linking before you. Here we go-
1. What do you think it means to have the holiday spirit?
If you've been reading here a while you might remember answering this question in a long-ago edition of the Hodgepodge. December 15, 2010 to be exact. Ten years ago. What???
Let's not get sidetracked by time travel. Here's what I wrote back then-
"I think holiday spirit is that little kernel of excitement on top of that little kernel of anticipation all mixed together with a sense of contentment deep in your heart. I have to say I haven't quite captured it yet this year and I think that's due to a number of things including, but not limited to,
a. I am not hosting Christmas in my own house this year
b.my oldest is working now so naturally there are complicated logistics to be sorted and accepted
c. because we're spread out we haven't done any fun holiday things all together as a family yet and I'm not sure if/when we will because see #b.
Figuring it all out is just another step towards the new normal known as the empty nest. And here is what I do know... I do know that the real spirit of Christmas doesn't ebb and flow with our circumstances, our schedules, our pocketbooks, the weather, or any of life's big and little disappointments. The real spirit of Christmas is eternal."
One thing I love about blogging is looking back and seeing how events and feelings have held up or changed over time. The first paragraph of my original answer still holds true, as does the last.
We may have to work harder this year to find our holiday spirit, but I have managed to drill my focus down to the baby in the manger. Everything else is tinsel on the tree. Which is nice, but not essential.
2. What's one thing you've baked this month? Have you eaten the finished product? How much baking do you do around the holidays? What baked sweet something does your family insist is on the menu during this season of the year?
I do quite a bit of baking this time of year, although I'm trying to rein it in a little in 2020. Hypothetically speaking I don't need to eat two or three Christmas cookies every day between now and Jan 1. I most recently baked a non-Christmas treat, chocolate chip banana bread, because I had overly ripe bananas and didn't want to waste them. I put that loaf in the freezer to have when my grandsons are here since this is a treat both they and their momma love.
My family expects cookies on the menu, and lots of them. I try to oblige.
3. Your most recent 'half-baked' idea?
I'm trying to remember something I've done recently that didn't go the way I'd planned and the only thing that springs to mind is a dinner I cooked recently that was delicious. Also super messy (most of my cooking is) and labor intensive and I forgot about the labor intensive part until I started prepping things at the rather late hour of 6:30 PM.
4. Where were you the last time you 'baked' in the sun? The top ten sunniest destinations in the world (most sun from January-December according to this site) are Dubai, Bali Indonesia, Los Angeles CA, Miami FL, Barbados, Dominican Republic, St. Lucia, Mauritius, Antiqua, and the Canary Islands Spain. Have you been to any of the cities listed? Which one on the list appeals to you the most? If the world were not upside down crazy and you could lie on a beach anywhere right now where would you go?
We spent a long weekend visiting friends in Florida waaaaay back in March. We drove home just as lockdowns were beginning.
I've been to several sunny spots listed including Dubai, Miami, St Lucia, and Antiqua. I would not say no to a trip to Bali but if I could lie on a beach anywhere right now I'd probably pick something closer to home. Maybe the Keys.
5. Today I wish I had more _____________________.
Blank space in my to-do list? Hours in the day? Is that cliche? Maybe so, but also true for me today.
Here are the questions to this week's Wednesday Hodgepodge. Answer on your own blog, then skate back here tomorrow to share answers with the universe. See you there-
1. What do you think it means to have the holiday spirit?
2. What's one thing you've baked this month? Have you eaten the finished product? How much baking do you do around the holidays? What baked sweet something does your family insist is on the menu during this season of the year?
3. Your most recent 'half-baked' idea?
4. Where were you the last time you 'baked' in the sun? The top ten sunniest destinations in the world (most sun from January-December according to this site) are Dubai, Bali Indonesia, Los Angeles CA, Miami FL, Barbados, Dominican Republic, St. Lucia, Mauritius, Antiqua, and the Canary Islands Spain. Have you been to any of the cities listed? Which one on the list appeals to you the most? If the world were not upside down crazy and you could lie on a beach anywhere right now where would you go?
