Time to de-Christmas, put away decorations, distribute forgotten C-level gifts to the bedrooms, trash boxes of treats housing only crumbs. Deliver gifts to those we didn’t see… limp and crumpled tissue leaning out of the seasonal bags…Santa is so last month. Every year I try and organize a bit better for the decorating marathon the morning after Thanksgiving, mental notes of what is in which box. This year I went over the top and labeled the boxes. It only took me 33 years to figure that one out…progress.
Winter weekends are for cooking big pots of comfort. Chili, stew, soups. Some for today, a dinner next week, and a week worth of lunches. Love in a pot. Yesterday I made chili, switching it up going all vegetarian, and honestly not sure I will do that again. Delicious but missing something, maybe I’ll try vegan, the masters of imposter textures. Going from months of baking for others…to creating meals for my family. It feels so right, if I make a cookie…it is for them.
Winter weekends used to be about projects. Kids working on their Olympics of the Visual Arts creations, taking over the living room and porch with oversized art…acrylic paints everywhere, dreamy. The whole family focusing on the high school play, each doing our part…set painting, prop making, actors, and runners…a gift for so many years. Projects reorganizing, purging, and clearing out what we had outgrown. Getting stuff done with few interruptions, inside is the place to be.
Today I am remembering the love and the crazy of the holiday season…like childbirth, the good memories float to the top…and pretty soon, the light and the energy of the busy seasons ahead will have me spinning with glee.
Swoon.
Swooning 
I am going to make that chili. Sadly, I have a vegetarian in the house so I will have to make two chilis. Thank you for making me all warm and fuzzy this cold Monday morning. With regard to Christmas decorations- this year our Christmas tree was a couple of Poinsettias lit with those mini blinking lights. Lady, I must tell you, the relief of not having to dismantle that tree with dry pine needles sticking you in the face while you try to untangle the lights, is like no other. Each year, we (I) have tried to whittle down the decorations, especially the ones that the family loving bestowed (palmed off) upon us. “Oh, you just bought a house, here is all the stuff (crap) we have been saving just for you!”
Thank you, Kat, I live for you posts!
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I’m sure it was festive and fabulous. Key for veggie chili I have since learned is to blend 1/2 the beans to give it a nice rich texture!
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