And here we are, already into December, again. Wasn’t it just December? Won’t it be December again soon?

I left off with the great disappointment of not having the Thanksgiving I was planning. They say life is what happens while you are busy making plans, but the truth is, you make plans, sometimes they work out really well, and other times you have to adjust. I was sad that my parents couldn’t visit, but Louie and I made the best of the situation. We raked leaves to the curb, revealing our yard for the first time in months. We did various house projects. We slept in, we read, we relaxed. It was wonderful. Oh, and I cooked and baked. And on Saturday he tested negative and his family decided to risk it and come over for the meal we were planning to have on Thursday. (As of today nobody has gotten sick from this meal to our knowledge, so that’s good.)

Louie took the picture, so he wasn’t in it. We also got a new tree for the downstairs, pre lit, and it’s a lot of fun.

Oh, there’s Louie! With his mom, stepdad, and brother.

A closeup of some of the food. Most of it was vegan, but not the turkey or gravy.

We had a nice dinner, and LOTS of leftovers! Louie and sent some with his family, and we ate leftovers for days. I thought the turkey turned out amazing (I dry brined it, which means I rubbed salt all over it, along with some lemon zest and spices, and then let the skin dry out, then cooked it to just under 165 all over and pulled it out and let it rest for awhile) and we enjoyed those leftovers for a long time. I made broth in the crockpot from the carcass and that’s in the freezer.

So that brings us to December holidays. We did a little decorating before the dinner, and then I did a lot of decorated the next day. It’s been fun decorating a new house! I had purchased some things on clearance last year after the holidays, knowing I would have more space to use, so I was excited to pull them out. We have a variety of things that have lights on timers that come on at night, and all of our Christmas tree lights (TWO TREES) are voice activated. And so far the cats haven’t done too much destruction, though they do enjoy watching the lights and wrestling on the white tree skirt.

It may seem a little extra to have two trees, but I wanted something downstairs AND in my teaching room. The tree in the teaching room is pretty old and the cats have done some damage over the years, but it works well in the corner. The other tree is new and I hope will last for many more years. We have the storage space now (the basement is roomy) so it made sense. I also put (battery operated, on a timer) candles in our front facing windows so I am sort of decorating the street. I may leave those up into January as well, to help with the winter gloomies.

My friend April sent me this picture of her house. Their neighborhood is having a contest and doesn’t her house look amazing!!!???!!!

And of course, some cat shenanigans. I know many of you are only here for that.

This week is a marathon: it’s open house week for my morning school, which means the students perform for their parents each morning (starting at 7:30 am, we arrive much before that!) plus I have four performances this weekend: Friday night a choir concert at Missouri Baptist University including Vivaldi’s Gloria, Sunday morning the Perseid Quartet is at Third Baptist, Sunday afternoon I play with the Cor Jesu choir, and Sunday night the Masterworks Chorale plays Handel’s Messiah. In addition to the concerts, there are rehearsals, so many lessons (last week of Wash U classes!) and a neighborhood party on Saturday afternoon.

None of the concerts will be particularly stressful or difficult, other than I hope to not be too tired to manage. I think the key will be getting to sleep as early as a can and not wasting too much time scrolling. This is definitely the “worst” week for scheduling: the following week starts crazy, but tapers off and ends up with some wonderful days to do some baking.

And with that, I’m off for chores and fun. I only have one student today and the rest of the day will be filled with home chores (laundry mostly) , hopefully a nice walk outside, and I’m not sure what else. We were going to go out to dinner with a friend but they might be sick so either we will go out alone or just cook at home. What are you up to this week? Is your December really busy so far? If you aren’t a musician, do you go to concerts in December?