The song “Have a Holly Jolly Christmas” has been running through my mind since Dec. 25, probably because a Sam the Snowman chew toy was waiting under the tree for my niece’s dog that day. The Burl Ives version of the song was featured in the Rankin-Bass animated special, “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” so it’s been his voice singing the song.
Except I changed the title a bit. “Had a hibernating Christmas” is the way it plays in my head.
DF and I did go out the afternoon of Christmas Eve to meet up with his son, daughter-in-law and their kids for a couple hours of carol-singing, Chinese food and opening a few presents. (Let me say that we never opened gifts early when I was a kid, but life is about adapting, right?)
On Christmas Day, DF had to show up at church as cantor for a mid-morning Mass, so he dropped me at my niece’s home to watch her kids open their gifts. And, of course, to see the dog toy that inspired the earworm.
This morning, I dropped him at church for his usual 8 a.m. cantor gig, and headed off to see if any post-holiday specials were good enough to tempt me into using some Shopkick points. Short form: Nope. In fact, the two stores I visited had relatively little left to be marked down. Supply-chain issues strike again, I guess.
So we were back here by 9:30 a.m. and did more of what we’ve done since Friday evening: hibernate. No visiting with family or friends, no movies, no nothin’. A whole lot of reading napping has taken place in the past few days, though.
It felt pretty good, I have to say.
We weren’t only about hibernating. Several household chores were accomplished, including a major fridge clean-out: removing the food and all the shelves, washing the inside of the appliance with bleach water, washing and drying the shelves, reorganizing the food (and tossing a couple of pieces of suspect cheese), and putting it all back together. It took the two of us probably 45 minutes, working together and nonstop. This felt great, both the working-together part and the fact that we’d been wanting to do this for some time now but just never got around to it.
For the most part, though, we’ve been lolling.
Hibernating was necessary
In part this was because I’ve been working a lot of hours lately and wanted some down time. It’s also because I’m still not ho-ho-holiday ready after my dad’s death from COVID last November. Christmas 2020 wasn’t easy; mostly me sleepwalking through the days and telling myself that 2021 would be better.
Pretty prescient, huh? #sarcasm
It wasn’t until six or eight weeks ago that I finally had my howling, screaming, crying breakdown about Dad’s death. I’m not sure I ever cried so long or so loud in my life prior to this. Contributing factors: the way the last five years have gone, and the way the past year-plus in particular has gone.
Apparently I needed that. Apparently I also needed a ration of absolute stillness. Reading and naps both qualify.
I hope that all of you who celebrate Christmas had a great time, and that all of you who don’t celebrate Christmas at least got some of that absolute stillness (or some overtime pay if you prefer it to hibernating).
And I hope that 2022 is kinder to us all, even though some wag pointed out that it’s pronounced as “2020, too.” Perish the thought.
Related reading:
I’ve been meaning to leave a comment for you and I hope it gives you a little bit of cheer. First off, I placed a pretty good sized order with Denali Dreams for some Christmas gifts. Since you had mentioned them in one of your columns I made sure to look them up. I also called with a question and had the nicest chat – they are so friendly, plus I mentioned your name and blog. They recognized you of course, haha. Super customer service and the soaps, salves, etc. smelled soooooo amazing. Everyone loved their gifts, and, naturally I gifted myself some because I cannot resist scented soaps. Very high quality stuff so I’ll be purchasing more from them. I also wanted to tell you that I have diligently followed your advice all year about saving my veggie/fruit scraps for the boiling bag. I’m an enthusiastic gardener and enjoy hearing about your gardening experiences. I ended up with four big gallon bags full and I made the most wonderful stock from it the other week. I had enough to give my daughter and my sister plenty. It smelled fantastic and tasted divine. I do love to make soups so I can’t wait to use this. Anyway, thanks for all the info and advice you provide on your blog – I really enjoy reading everything. Just wanted to pass this on to you and wish you and DF a wonderful time of relaxing and good food during the holidays.
They’re very nice over at Denali Dreams. I plan to do another giveaway this year as well because good-quality soaps and unguents are a tremendous luxury that many people never think to give themselves. (Glad you broke that cycle!)
Also glad to hear that the boiling bag is working for you. It certainly does for us, and we enjoy getting our money’s worth from any vegetable/fruit that we buy/grow. Definitely soup weather right now.
For the uninitiated, here’s an explanation of the boiling bag:
https://donnafreedman.com/boiling-bag/
I can relate to your crying jag. I have lost both parents and holidays are not so bright as my children have moved far away and I do not see them very often. I, too, had a very quiet Christmas. I took in a woman who was homeless through no fault of her own. She came complete with a dog and really good cooking skills lol. Anyway, we spent Christmas Eve with a wonderfully cooked dinner and driving around looking at lights. Christmas day was spent with my two oldest and dearest friends and their two cats. All in all, it was a very good time.
Yes, grieve for those we have lost, especially at this time of year. But also look around and find gratitude in each moment. I grieved for my parents but at the same time I remembered the wonderful home they gave me and my brothers. I am thankful I had that.
I got to hibernate and work some OT (from home!)…..Christmas Eve was offered so I jumped on it. Then went to Stepmoms for a nice quiet meal (just the 2 of us)…
Christmas Day I am normally with a few close friends where we go to a local Chinese restaurant and then back to their home for drinks and some rousing games of Bingo. But one lost his Father Christmas Eve last year, and one lost her Mother a few months back (non covid) ..so they weren’t feeling the holiday this year.
I got up and went for a 4 mile walk (weather was a lovely sunny 68), then lay around watching Christmas movies and ordered my traditional Chinese takeout for dinner. It was a lovely relaxing day – much needed!
What little snow we had here melted with the rain on Christmas Day so it made for prime walking conditions here in Massachusetts on the 26th. The cold never bothers me…it’s the trudging through snow or slipping on ice that hinders me. A friend texted to see if I wanted to walk some trails with her that day but I declined. I needed the kind of time you were talking about; the silent, hibernating kind. Read my book, took a long, hot bath with eucalyptus oil, ate leftovers and did a few minor cleanups. I feel revived and calm and have decided I need to do this more often (hopefully).
File it under “self-care,” then do it as regularly as you can get away with all year long.
We had temperatures in the mid-20s yesterday, but still got freezing rain. Blech. I hope that the inversion goes away and gies us some normal snow. Man, do I hate icy walkways and streets.
I cooked a smaller than usual Christmas dinner, after putting spouse on alert that if he did not help this year, there would be no dinner.
I watched Harry Potter movies for a good portion of the day and night.
Did some cleaning of the kitchen, which I have been working on for way too long.
Did not watch very much news.
Two phone calls only. Will call sisters and other relatives later this week.
Watched online church instead of attending in person. Did do the Carol Sing last week, and you can sing in a mask, and it was beautiful.
I’m glad that you had your hibernating time, a time to help you heal. Since we’re in the last days of this year, I want to tell you how very much your posts mean to me. I enjoy them, I learn from them, and I’m inspired by them. I am truly in awe of your gardening and food preserving reports. My gardening was on an almost nonexistent scale this year partly because I was finding it hard to hope. Strangely and wonderfully enough, that hope is starting to come back. I have a cherry tomato plant in a pot, a holdover from this past summer, and it has small cherry tomatoes on it, some of them starting to turn red. We have to take it in at night because of the deer. I have two banana pepper plants whose leaves and several peppers were munched by the deer (on the back porch), and they’re sprouting new leaves. Temperatures are warmer than normal for this time of year in Central Texas, and I’ve decided to go with it and make the most of them rather than wish that they were something else. I could go on, but not now. Thank you so much. I appreciate what you say and how you say it. Here’s to hope in 2022!
Thank you for your kind words! And thanks for reading — and for hoping.
I am sure you have heard about the miserable Fairbanks weather. 40 below then it warms up and we got 15 inches of snow at our house. Then a few days to shovel that and another 12 inches of snow and the, all day yesterday—rain!!!! Businesses and municipal offices are closed, the troopers have asked foks to stay off the highway, the idiots who do insist on going out are ending up in ditches…the roof of the IGA store, the only food sore in Delta caved in…the highway between Nenana and Healy was shut down due to glare ice. It is a nightmare and I dare not venture out into the yard because it is all ice. Even our dog fell over!! It makes me especially thankful that our house is snug, we have more food than we know what to do with, that my husband and I like being together, and that I donated $60 to PBS so we are watching All Creatures via their Passport feature, in preparation for the new season coming out. Thanks for your blog. I think we are in much the same season of life and also have the same interests (like gardening and food preservation) so I enjoy visiting with you via your posts. Happy new year.
I did hear about that Interior weather. Man, it sounds fierce. I’m glad you can stay in and stay out of trouble. We had freezing rain here yesterday as well, even though the temperature was 24 degrees, and I reluctantly canceled my visit to Linda B’s house. We’ll catch up later this week.
Sounds like the two of you are well set-up to weather the storm, so to speak. And like you, DF and I enjoy being together — even when we’re cleaning out the fridge.
Thanks for reading, and for sharing your story.