We had a lovely Christmas except that I neglected to notice that the Gummy Army Men that I purchased for Matt and Andrew at The Vermont Country Store came in two pound bags so we now have most of two pounds of green apple flavored Gummy Army Men. I’m hoping that Matt’s D&D buddies will scarf his. God only knows what we’re going to do with the rest of Andrew’s.
And my *new car* is still the bomb. It has lost much of its new car smell because I put a little lavender bundle up on the rearview mirror so now it smells like new car and lavender. I’ve always had a flower and a little herb bundle in my car, I couldn’t deny New Car the herb bundle even if it means that I miss out on the new car smell. Still looking for a name for her too.
New Year’s Eve…….WHOO! We’ve been very lucky at our NYE parties. Only once, the first year in fact, has there been any precipitation. Cold and cloudy is fine if you’ve got a bigass bonfire in your backyard to keep what guests want to be outside warm. Precipitation stretches the bounds of sanity however. Good fire, good party. EXCELLENT weather for sky lanterns which is a good thing because there were lots of them. Absolutely lovely when released in groups.

And then, January. Cough, hack, wheeze, hack, cough cough cough!
January brought a new twist in yuk. On Monday I was going to drive up to Bellevue and sit with my dad so he didn’t have to wait alone while Mother had her other (right?) knee replaced. Work schedule turned into a booger (heh, premonition) however and I ended up having to work. THIS WAS A GOOD THING because I was probably wildly contagious at the time. If I happened to infect you at some point between the first and the sixth of January my deepest apologies. This FUNK sucks and if I find out who infected me I will kill them. 👿
By the time I left work Monday evening my back hurt. By the time I got home my back, my shoulders, and my hips hurt. I came home wanting nothing more than to take ibuprofen and go to bed, only to find that Andrew was achey and coughing. We ate soup and went to bed. Tuesday we woke up with THE FUNK. I had fever and aches, Andrew had cough and wheeze. I got better, kinda, and he didn’t. The upshot of this is that I’ve got enough of an upper respiratory funk to make me cough a lot (thanks Zicam! You taste awful, but it’d be worse without you!) and Andrew’s got pneumonia.
We are going through an awful lot of ginger beer, lemon juice, honey, and soft, lotion-y Kleenex.
We had appointments with three dudes to come and measure the house for new flooring today. We cancelled all of them.
We have, however, discovered the joy of fleece jammie pants. I put mine on for the first time this afternoon and I may not take them off again until May.

Before her surgery Mom, who has a markedly jaded opinion of most things medical, was crabbily recommending that people not bother to interact much with her until around the 27th of the month. I’m not as crabby and I’m nowhere near comparing respiratory FUNK to major orthopedic surgery, but I’d still recommend avoiding interactions with either Andrew or I for at least another week. We’ll try not to cough on you.