First, let's start with Thanksgiving. With cases skyrocketing, I was so grateful that we celebrated an outdoor Thanksgiving a few weeks before with our family. JO and I celebrated Thanksgiving at our house (a first for us) and got a little help with the side dishes from Puritan and Company. I'm so glad we ordered from Puritan because we got to support a local restaurant, and we only had to cook the turkey. Way less dishes to deal with and the week of cleaning and painting that we were in the middle of, it was nice to have less dishes!
You know, when you spend as much time as we have in our place over the last 268 days, you start to notice all the faults: the chipped paint, the gross green/yellow color of the kitchen walls, the dust in places you would rather ignore, tile grout that's not looking great, and the list goes on. Over the Thanksgiving Break, JO and I decided to tackle all of the projects that had been piling up on our home improvement list for the last twelve years...all in a one week span of time. (I'm not sure what we were thinking and once we started one project led to another and another and before we knew it we covered in filth and paint and inhaling a lovely concoction of Pinesol, Fantastic, and Scrubbing Bubbles.).
The project did involve emptying all the rooms into the kitchen. This kind of chaos is not something I am a fan of. I actually don't handle things well when stuff isn't where it belongs. I really had to take one for the team during project week.
I cleaned things I never thought I would clean. At one point, I was sitting on the floor in our good bathroom, pumping hand soap on the tiles and hoping it wouldn't be too slippery. And you do not want to know about the oven. It seriously took six days of cleaning to fix it up. We'll be instituting a cleaning spreadsheet in the near future so things don't get this out of hand again. All the hard work paid off because the apartment is looking amazing!
We celebrated one night of painting with our new Tiki glasses from a shop at Bow Market!
Even though it was crazy busy, we did find time to enjoy our time off. One night we watched Boston Ballet's virtual show "Forsythe Element." Although nothing can replace seeing the ballet live, it was great to have this performance to enjoy in our living room. I think the thing that has been hardest for me over these 268 days is not being able to go to the ballet, theater, and concerts. The arts are such a big part of what makes the city a great place to live.
College basketball has started. Of course I'll watch my Huskies (the women are currently in quarantine) but it doesn't seem right to be trying to have a season right now.
On Saturday night, after finishing the last of the painting projects, we headed over to Noir in Harvard Square. Typically, the Saturday after Thanksgiving is the tree lighting at the Charles Hotel. Even though they weren't having the event, we were able to have a lovely dinner on the patio (this patio is very safe and probably one of the only places I would even think of visiting with numbers this high) and visit the tree. (#christmastreechallenge)
The cleaning spilled over into this week and I'm not going to lie, at one point I was so exhausted, that I definitely wore pajama pants to my living room/classroom. Gotta enjoy the perks of this year while I can, right!
Speaking of school, the December Crazies are here. I have no idea what to expect in an online world but I'm keeping my fingers crossed it goes smoothly. I've already met most of the kids' elves and seen everyone's trees! There are a lot of things about this year that are super challenging, and basically impossible, but my little group of 4th graders keeps me smiling every day. I recently came across this post on the Book and it really clicked with me.
On Friday night, with cases higher than ever before, we were all set to hunker down but then we walked by Ole and no one was on their patio so we took advantage. (I mean, my kitchen was sparkling, I didn't want to mess it up.) We enjoyed our drinks and fajitas (that doubled as a hand warming device.)
On the way home, we saw this display at Gather Here and it really stuck with me. I am so grateful for this really weird time in my life where I learned to slow down, be creative, practice self care, etc. I know I am lucky and privileged to be able to say that but I think it's ok to say I am grateful for this time and what it has taught me.
It was so New England, warm enough on Friday night to eat outside and cold enough over the weekend to drop 12 inches of snow in Worcester. Thankfully, we didn't get much snow because I'm not ready for that, although I don't really drive anymore so I guess I can take snow.) Saturday night was the kind of night though that we would have headed over to a local restaurant and enjoyed watching the wet flakes fall and the listen to the wind whip. Since we couldn't do that, we got take out from Puritan and watched Home Alone. Not the same, but definitely not a bad way to spend a night.
So now the apartment is clean, my report cards are almost done, and it's the holiday season!
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