Holiday letter 2024

 

Happy holidays! It's one of my favorite times of the year. The house is filled with Christmas jazz, there's a foot of snow icing the neighborhood and I'm ready for vacation and eating mom's cooking. After last year's holiday post, I went out to California to visit the family and a few friends in Palm Springs. It was such a winning formula that I am doing it again this year but Serge is coming too. 

Here is the last picture I ever took of George last December before we had to put him down. I miss him so much. Soon after that terrible vet appointment, it was Christmastime and after I got back from California it was so snowy and cold, I couldn't wait to get out again. Snow and cold is fine in December, but after that there is no joy for me.

I headed to Ecuador first this year. It would be my longest visit yet - 10 and a half weeks. I found an amazing little airbnb unit in a great location with a lovely rooftop patio with a view over the city. It was thirteen hundred dollars for the whole stay there. (We booked it again for 2025.) For about a month, I enjoyed the sunny days and hanging with friends that we have down there. Thursday game day was one of the weekly highlights. Also, even though I work a little bit down there, it feels like I am in retirement. Can't wait to go back in January. 

Then, as in years past, we went on a cruise with our campcamp.com friends. It was the first time we had gone on a cruise with MSC and it was delightful! I think the ship wasn't full and therefore it was never super busy and one never had to wait long for anything. About an hour after we had gotten on the ship, they announced they were canceling a stop so the remaining ports were Miami and Nassau, yawn. We ended up never getting off the ship and it was wonderful having the pool largely to ourselves during port stops. Of course we had great fun with our camp friends and nightly meetups and dinners. I can't recall what Serge was doing here. Maybe we were talking about When Harry Met Sally but who knows.

After the cruise, Serge flew back to Ecuador with me for about 6 weeks. We did things we had never done there before like visit the zoo (very big on the steep side of a mountain that took us a good three hours to walk through. The pic is from there.) and visit the Amazon (a very long and ardous journey to get there and back, but we saw amazing waterfalls and wildlife) and eat guinea pig (tasted like greasy chicken). The winter vacation formula worked so well that we are doing almost exactly the same thing in 2025. I think we will swap out the Amazon excursion for a beach excursion this year though. 

We got back at the end of March and winter was still hanging on but the snow finally quit in April. In May, I joined some campcamp folks to scope out the new location of camp in Maine. What an upgrade! We all had fun planning for the summer and really enjoyed the bowling alley. I now know what the back of the alley looks like and how to get the pins and balls unstuck as they are wont to do. 

In June, Serge's mom celebrated her 80th birthday with us. We went out to dinner at 5 thinking we wouldn't need a reservation (though it was Saturday) and the first place we went was completely full and they wouldn't be able to take us until 7:30. Luckily the next choice had room for us. More and more these days I find myself thinking that there are just too many people everywhere. This was one of them. 

Finally, summer arrived. Here we are down in Old Montreal for the jet boat ride. I had gotten half-price tickets on black Friday so we took our next-door neighbors who, as I've said before, have become our best buds. We hung out all summer around the fire, at the beach and frequently at each other's house. For the Carnival-like party here, we ordered costumes from the wizard of oz and dressed up. They left for Thailand in October this year for a five-month stay like they did last year. In 2026 though, we are planning to stay more time here in the winter and hang out together. 

When a girl's got to go, she's got to go. Serge in his Dorothy costume. He made the ruby "slippers" himself. 

Then it was time for campcamp and we got to use the costumes a second time for T-dance. It was a great week but only really the first few days for me. Being in charge of transportation became a headache with campers coming down with covid and needing to be transported out as well as my staff coming down with covid and having to leave. It all worked out as usual, but it was stressful at the end. 

In September we had a visit from an acquaintance inquiring if we would like to have a pug (he knew I had a pug in mind for a future pet). The only catch was not to castrate him so that he could continue to make puppies with his two female pugs. Frankly, I don't think either of us were ready to get a dog again, but we took him for a one week trial and of course fell for him. He is really a good dog, very vocal and VERY attached to me. It will be hard to be away from him for so long when I am in Ecuador this year (plane tickets had already been bought when we got him).

The fall has been fun with Freddy. I took him down to the river and he loved splashing around and biting the water. We even took him to Montreal when we went to our friend's birthday party. He did great. There was a kid of about 11 years old there who took to Freddy right away. It was fun seeing them play together and reminded me of the bonds I had with dogs when I was a kid. 

Last week, we got to visit our friends in Granby. We had a great time catching up and getting holiday sloshed together. 

That is a basic recap of the year's highlights. I'm still working part time teaching and Serge is still working part-time at the local hardware store. Although I'm a bit of a news junky, I feel like the holiday letter is not the place to weigh in on current events. Suffice it to say, there is plenty to fret about. But at this time of year, I just like to feel grateful for all the good in the world, our friends and families and good health and happiness. I wish the same for all of you. Merry merry!

My sixtieth year

But I'm not sixty yet! Yet it dawned on me that I AM in my sixtieth year of life since at 59, one has completed all of those years. Turning sixty can't be all that different than turning 59 after all. But here I am going through my life and suddenly the reality of my age is like that bad devil on your shoulder commenting darkly on everything about it. It's not all bad though, it seems more like this is my year of resignation, that no one escapes old age. No one. Resignation might be the wrong word, it's more like letting go. Letting go of the notion that I can get rid of those wrinkles, that sag, those brain farts. (They'll be increasing forever more.) Letting go of the idea that I'm still going to make something of myself, that I'll be well-off (bwahahahaha). This is liberating. One tiny shred of light on the overriding fact: I'm dying. The point is we all are, I just keep dwelling on it these days. Might as well share some of my observations today.

I have started to put cream on my face. Those who know me know I loathe to put any type of cream on my skin. I just hate the feel of it. But when I was in Ecuador this year, they sold Retinol (the good strength) over the counter, so the devil on my shoulder told me to get it. Its application is now a daily ritual. 

I can't say it's my favorite station, but Apple Music's "Easy listening" essentials is the station I play most frequently. I bet my grandparents would like it, if they were still alive.

Serge and I both forgot our anniversary this year. We realized it ELEVEN days later, a record. The fact that this made us both giggle helplessly mitigates the horror of the memory loss it implies.

I had a follow-up scan this week about a little thingy they found on my lung last year. I'm still waiting to hear from the doctor. I figure it can go two ways, either I'll need some treatment, or I won't. I'll die or I won't. Wait, I will die, just possibly not from the little thingy on my lung.

My ass looks like a plastic grocery bag with just a little bit of water at the bottom of it. If you're sixty, yours probably does too. (At least that's what I tell myself.)

I haven't written here since we lost Georgie, the two of which may be related. I grieved hard, but then something weird happened, the grief became like a testament to my love for him, and then it was easier. The grief has died down greatly, which in a way almost saddens me, because when will I get to feel such an expression of love again? Not that I'm wishing for more grief, that will surely come, that is, if I don't die first.

Last night we sat in a room full of people where old men sang karaoke songs on stage. We were not one of them. Serge asked me, " Does it feel like we are in a retirement home?" I had to shush him. 

Paying attention. Why did I not do this so much before? Like I can sit and watch the birds at the bird feeder for an hour. It's all happening so fast when you pay attention. I make stories up about the bird squabbles and try to figure out the pecking order between species. Fascinating.

We have a commercial-sized recycle container at our house. When Serge brought it home, I thought it was a great idea. We do go through a lot of cans after all. Perfectly normal, right?

Finally for today, I feel much less inclined these days to share, to create, to DO, and more inclined to observe, consume, and BE. So cliched I know. But it's true and lest you think some of my observations are too dark, rest assured that I am just fine and will keep trying to pay attention. I'll do a year review blog by Christmas. Until then, thanks for stopping by. 😊