Last day of 52...

Its Christmas Eve and a Saturday...and it has lots of meanings today.

It is my last day of being 52 years old.  Haven't really thought about being 52 this year...I assume that is generally a good thing.  I am reading a book about death/forensic criminology (All That Remains: A Renowned Forensic Scientist on Death, Mortality, and Solving Crimes).  Oddly, it is actually comforting in its no-nonsense accounting of death.  Not sure where how I am feeling about getting older, but generally speaking, I am feeling good right now.

Today is also another day of Hanukkah, so this morning, I made Dreidel waffles..

ALSO, we have an MRI appointment for Willow--her knee (that had surgery last year) has been bothering her so we are having that checked out...on Christmas Eve...

ALSO, there has been a request for my traditional birthday dinner to be at the Dim Sum place in China Town...

 

A Nice Birthday Present...

I jokingly asked for a Hug (the Boy hates hugs and physical contact) ---he immediately complied--and even smiled for a picture!!

That is a perfect Happy Birthday present for a mom!

Concerts

I love live shows--the Arts are how we turn life into LIVING and having a wonderful concert experience reminds you of that in so many ways.

Going to an Indigo Girls concert is just such an experience.  I have been to a lot of their concerts (essentially, whenever they are in this area I try to go...).  I even "did" some of the virtual concerts they did during the height of the Pandemic.  

However, last night made me happy that once again, we as a community, can go back to live events.

I went with two of my friends, and it was the typical Indigo Girls concert (i.e. predominantly progressive women (some, but not all, lesbian) and "There was quite a bit of “hooting and hollering,”... The musicians just happily drank it all in! No Indigo Girls show would be complete without their signature song, “Closer To Fine.” This one always has Indigo Girls turning a verse or two over to the crowd to sing and they never miss a word."

The energy was great and I was just happy (and a little nostalgic) to be there in the moment.

Thankfulness

Thursday night we officially kicked off the Holiday Season by going to see a theater show of A Christmas Carol.  We have seen this show before, but not in a few years....and it made me feel good and in awe of life again.  

Something about LIVE performances, and being THERE with them as both the audience and the actors/crew putting on the show are in the moment and ENJOYING being there and in the moment.  

It was like coming home.  After all the mess of the Pandemic and the messy-chaos of life (note some things down below)...its nice to be reminded of how life itself is the EXPERIENCE.

The production is an annual tradition, and many of the actors perform it each year. The actor playing Scrooge has done it for over 30 years...and the familiarity is like putting on your favorite slippers.  You can tell that they are enjoying themselves.  That they are not just going through it by rote.  To do something for 30 years and have such glee in it still...what a metaphor for life.

Some days and weeks this year have been daunting.  Some have been just the daily grind until you realize that months have passed.  

But every so often, just like Thursday night, something happens to bring me to a sense of wonder and awe of LIFE itself.

Reminding me to be a PART of the world around me.  See the things in front of me, Smell, Taste, Listen...and ENJOY!

Some pictures of life the past month or so...

This was the year of No Refrigerator...our refrigerator broke and we did not have a working solution for 3 weeks...which included during Thanksgiving!  We stored the turkey and fixings in a cooler over night-

-and we feasted anyways!

New Thanksgiving decor!

Finally watched the Parade all the way through--thank you UTube for helping me find a NO ANNOUNCER/COMMERCIAL for SHOWS broadcast--I actually Saw the Parade!

While having some food with my Peeps!

Tried a cheese board, apparently not as successful as the ad hoc one I made for "Welcome to Fall"**--it was too fancy of cheese for some...

But chocolate penguins?  Yes!

Random earlier pictures from this fall:

Lennier and Willow doing what they like to do best!

Going to a show with my girl!

Kif disrupting my work...

Michael getting another collectible.  (New shirt from Count Orloks)

End of Halloween!

The Haul

Depression can sometimes look beautiful...(I wanna just Hug the bad thoughts out!)

**My "Welcome to Fall" cheese board: