Holiday Traditions

I love the sun glowing through the clouds and fog this time of the year during my morning walks. 

This week I spent a few days in Windsor looking after Rocky, on the way I stopped at BurtoNZ Bakery for a sausage roll, bacon and egg pie and blueberry scone (no, I didn’t eat them all the same day, though I was tempted!) Made ginger snaps for Thanksgiving, a favorite tradition though it’s more fun to do it with my kids. 

I picked up mom and we drove to my sister’s place in Citrus Heights for Thanksgiving dinner, bringing along an extra guest, a cardboard cut out of Brock Purdy, the San Francisco 49ers quarterback! We were very happy to not hit any traffic at all, a rarity for the drive up Hwy 80. We watched the Macys Thanksgiving Day parade, commenting that we must be getting old since we didn’t recognize most of the performers. The ‘new’ Miracle on 34th Street was next, a movie that surprisingly my sister Christina had never seen! I love so many parts of it, in particular Allison Janney’s iconic scene as an unnamed shopper ‘I’m coming here for everything but toilet paper and bananas.’

I think it was one of our smallest Thanksgiving gatherings, we were all actually able to fit around the same table, which hasn’t happened for years, well I guess not since the pandemic, but that was different. Most of the grandkids were working or too far away to come and some of my sisters were having Thanksgiving with their in-laws. Dinner (technically it was lunch since we ate at 1 PM ) was delicious and I couldn’t stop myself from taking seconds, which I regretted soon after as I was so full. Some of us got out for a walk after dinner, we waddled quite slowly at first, but it definitely helped. I was on the road again by five and soon it was so dark it felt like the middle of the night.

The next day I was up early to meet everyone for the annual trek to Reindeer Ridge Christmas Tree farm in Sebastopol. We had a much larger crew than at Thanksgiving. It was probably the coldest we’ve ever had it on a Christmas tree cutting day. We didn’t mind trekking up and down the rows of trees as it helped keep us warm. I found a nice tree for the house and Kieran cut it down for me. After everybody had gotten their trees, ornaments and popcorn, we took the usual group photo (Brock was included as he also came with us to tree cutting ) then went on a tractor ride. My sister took a hilarious video of the tractor going around a corner and all you could see was Brock‘s head with his hat set at a jaunty angle moving in between the trees.

After tree cutting, we went to a local park for lunch, but it was still so cold that most of us did not end up staying for long. Hopefully next year we will have warmer weather.

On Sunday morning, I went for a hike on Mount Tam, it was foggy and moody, perfect hiking weather. The trail I was on tends to be less traveled, which I love. I could not get over all the different types of mushrooms that I saw! By the time I finished the fog was burning off, and it was looking to be a beautiful sunny day. That hike was just what I needed to lift my spirits, as I’d been feeling a little bit low, wishing I’d had more time to hang out with my family over the holiday weekend. 

After the hike I decided I needed to get into the Christmas spirit, so I watched the Waltons Christmas special and a much newer Christmas movie called Spirited on Apple TV starring Ryan Reynolds and Will Ferrell. I was amazed at how much I enjoyed it. It was silly, but also clever, a wonderful spoof on sappy Christmas movies. Later in the day, I managed to get the Christmas tree up and the lights on, but then was not up for unpacking all of the ornaments. That could wait until another day, along with putting up the outdoor lights.

I was up early on Monday morning to drop my sister off at the airport bus. I am looking after her dog Javi for the week while she is in Hawaii. Javi and I got out for a walk on the bike path and saw a spectacular dawn, I’m so glad I was up early to see that gorgeousness.