December

December was long and busy and good. 

I finished my last fall meeting on December 1st, which was the earliest I have finished ever. I try to finish by the end of November, but that never actually works. I was pretty pleased with not going past the first.

Once that was done, December was all about the Christmas concert. There was the challenge of making enough angel costumes for our 16 angels (all of them at least 9 years old, none of them short enough for the "long men's t-shirt" costumes). Then there were practices, the dress rehearsal, and the concert itself. It was a good concert; the children were wonderful and the parents enjoyed it. Plus, I finally broke the 1 hour mark, so that was an accomplishment. It always seems like a lot of work for a concert that's done in 45 minutes.

For several weeks I had felt almost sick on and off, and informed my body that if it must get sick, it had to wait until after the concert. It listened, and two days after the concert I came down with a cold and spent the week inside trying to get better! I wasn't terribly sick; if I had still been working my previous job, most days I would be expected to take some cold meds and go to work. I was thankful for a life where it was okay to get sick, no one would get angry, and no one expected me to work.

Then it was finally Christmas, which is always a good time. I have spent Christmas with the same family since 2018 (except one year I was with another family, and we missed each other and we decided to never do that again). It was quieter as some of the children were sick and there wasn't as much company as there would normally be. It was also very happy and I was very loved and able to demonstrate my love for them.

There has been a pile of snow this winter, mostly on Christmas Eve and Boxing Day. It's lovely and I love looking outside at the mounds and drifts and the falling snow.

The month (and year) ended with breakfast with a friend, lunch and shopping with my brother, and dinner at another friend's house with a family I hadn't seen in quite some time (not all on the same day!). 

It was a good month. It was a good year.