First of all, Merry Christmas. Secondly, you’ll notice I’ve shorted the title of this Blog. Instead of “Mondays with Morie”, it will now just be “Mondays”. I know what you’re thinking, “such a catchy title, this lady has a true gift of the English language.” Not. Lol. Anyway…

Christmas has come and gone. It has been hard to keep track of the days and it seems like sometimes all the days are the same and I have to look at a calendar to figure out what day it is. This is the first year that my Christmas season hasn’t been packed with church choir practices and Advent services and singing on Sunday mornings and preparing for our annual Christmas Sunday program and Christmas Eve Candlelight service. When the church doors were shuttered last March and we had no choice but to sit at home, I decided the best thing for me to do was to walk away completely.  I never wanted to do a “virtual” church service. To me, that was no different than watching Jerry Falwell (not that there’s anything wrong with Jerry) on television.  I felt like the powers that be were handing us little snippets of life and telling us we should be happy that we had been given that much. You know, “the new normal.” I know that is probably an attitude of cutting off my nose to spite my face, but I’ve found that if I try to accept something less than what I really want, I won’t be satisfied. I’d rather do without.

Back in September, when the choir was allowed to start up again, the director informed us that we would have to wear masks during our rehearsals and we would have to sit ten feet apart during practice. When sang in church, it would have to be from the front of the church,  socially distanced from each other. As a person who really has to rely on hearing another voice to follow, I knew that would not be an enjoyable experience for me.

For Christmas, I shopped almost exclusively on-line, because I hate to shop and it’s soooo convenient. I don’t do Christmas baking so I didn’t miss that and I even forgot Christmas cards this year. Generally, I design a photograph card but it wasn’t until I got a card in the mail that I even thought about it.

And the Christmas tree…first I couldn’t decide where to put it and then how I was going to decorate it. You see, two months ago, I adopted two cats; a mother cat and one of her kittens. She wasn’t much more than a kitten herself when she had her litter of seven babies; there is less than a year between her and her baby. But having one kitten and one a still “sort-of kitten,” my Christmas tree has become their playground and all the ornaments they could reach just another toy to bat around on the floor. Consequently, I only decorated it with non-breakable ornaments and the bottom third of the tree mostly had nothing on it. “Momma” and “Baby Kitty” have seen to that. Luckily, I had the forethought to tie the tree to the bookcase or I’m sure it would have been on the floor within a day.

I did get a couple projects completed for Christmas gifts and some just for myself. It’s one way I’ve managed to keep my sanity and keep myself from turning into an ogre. (Oh yeah, I’m watching Shrek as I’m typing this).

A memory quilt for my grandson. An embroidered quilt top made by my mom about forty-five years ago. It’s been in a box since she passed away almost thirty-five years ago. I’m completing it with patchwork blocks and borders…stay tuned for the finish project in a couple weeks!

And everyone needs a little help from their friends.

I decided I needed to make a mixer cover when I pulled out my mixer and found how dusty it had gotten just sitting on the counter.
And, a Thin Blue Line heart pillow for my police officer son.

I’m hoping that as we go forward into the future that more things will return to normal. I can’t imagine another year of no professional baseball, no Muny theater, no Fox Theater and so many of the other enjoyable things that have been curtailed. I don’t anticipate the vaccine being readily available to just the general public for a while, and to be quite honest, I haven’t decided on whether I’m going to get it or not. What about you?