December 2020

We started the month with a rental car, courtesy of our local Toyota dealership. There appeared to be some kind of disruption in the delivery of hydrogen to the West Coast. Our 3 stations in Sacramento are getting very limited deliveries. Since Toyota cannot get hydrogen to us, they pay for a rental car until the supply chain is fixed. We had taken the Toyota in for some new car servicing and they kept it for us while we drove the rental. It took 2-3 weeks, but deliveries finally seemed to be more reasonable. We are back in the Mirai and getting weekly hydrogen deliveries, so all is good. We had scheduled a YAYMAKER paint project for our special day with Karissa but Yaymaker cancelled it. We rescheduled for January 2 and spent an afternoon together instead. We picked up lunch to go at KT Noodles, then watched “Romancing the Stone”, complete with buttered popcorn.

I worked hard to complete handmade gifts; knitted slippers for the girls and memory books of our Tahoe trip for all. I wrote the Christmas poem and finished the kanji gifts that Eric had cut. We had planned on celebrating our anniversary cashing in our gift certificate at Ruth’s Chris Steak House but they cancelled all indoor seating, so that will have to wait for another day. Hopefully we can do it for our birthdays this summer. Instead, we spent a relaxing day looking through old pictures and videos on the TV. We got to the late 80’s. Then we picked up dinner from KT again, then had a movie night. Relaxing day with my best friend. We celebrated Solstice at the Blooms’ bonfire. Eric showed off his impressive propane-tank-turned-heater and I immediately took the chair between it and the fire, so I was toasty warm all evening. I brought sun bread and Michelle made her stew and Yule log. They added buttered rum to the menu this year as well. What a fun evening!!!

The next morning we went over to watch the grandkids open their Solstice gifts. Karissa got a new telescope and Max got lots of goodies for his camera. No more toys for these 2; we ae into serious stuff!!

The grandkids came over to decorate cookies as nametags for Christmas dinner. I soon learned that the consistency of the frosting is absolutely critical. We learned a lot and they were really cute.

Christmas morning we celebrated at Ryan’s house with Beth and Mary. Beth made a scrumptious french toast casserole with berries and whipped cream. Then it was home to prepare for our family dinner at 5. The kids came at 2 and snacked on Beth’s cheese balls and meatballs. The prime rib and turkey were both done by 5. We stuffed ourselves royally then had a rich dessert to top it off, thanks to Michelle.

In the craft department, Rog has spent many an hour working on his model railroad. He completed a trestle, Lid track and completed a number of intricate switches. I completed my phoenix crossstitch. I work on it in the evenings while watching TV. This one took 6 months. I have already started on a new crossstitch: one for the railroad room.

We had a few sunny days after Christmas so our neighbor asked for our help cleaning up tree trimmings. The oak in her yard covers our side yard and she was having a friend come and trim it up. Rog and I helped her fill 6 garbage barrels and stacked the big stuff for the Blooms. Michelle came over with her kids after lunch and we dumped it all in her pickup. She got quite a load. But Rog and I were pretty stiff and sore the next day. New Year’s Eve was just another day around here. We did watch the NY celebration at 9pm our time, then went to bed. The joy just isn’t there but I will be glad to close this year out.