As I sit here on my couch typing, the weather app tells me it is -7 degrees fahrenheit. MINUS SEVEN. Just yesterday morning it was in the 30’s and then it dropped by early afternoon to the teens and then here we are. The predicted high for today is 6 degrees. We only got a little snow yesterday, thankfully, but the wind is crazy, and I’ll tell you, I am very grateful to be snug in my warm house.

I do have to go to the airport today to pick up Louie (Miles will be thrilled, he has been moping around the house all week) and then do a pick up of some baked goods at Union Loafers, but otherwise I plan to spend the day inside. I have two students this morning and then I am DONE teaching for the year, woo hoo!

It’s been a good week, but still quite busy. I finished up teaching at my schools and got my grades submitted. I only have Christmas Eve gigs left. I baked some cookies, enjoyed my own holiday decor, had lunch with a friend, read a bunch, wrapped some presents to take down to South Carolina, and messed around the house.

I keep thinking how next winter we will be in our new house! And much sooner than that, of course, but that the next time I decorate for Christmas it will be in the new house, and there will be more room for decorations and who knows what I will come up with! We are still sorting out the specifics of the move, such as when, but I have the painter booked (painting inside, we may also do some), haven’t chosen colors yet, that will be a first thing in the new year thing. We are trying to figure out what to do with the floors, if we do anything (wood floors). And then it’ll be couch shopping time, as we want two new couches. I hope that after Christmas is a good time to shop for couches. If you have any specific places to recommend, please do!

I didn’t do as much baking as I sometimes do, for all the reasons I’ve been doing less this year, but I decided to bake butter thumbprint cookies to fill with my homemade marmalade. I got into canning the other year and canned way too much jam for one year, so we are still working our way through it.

I got a couple of gifts from students that aren’t for the cats, so I had to put them up on a high shelf, which is the only place in the house where we can display things but Muriel can’t get to them. One student made a frog and she said after she made it, she realized she should give it to me. She’s the one who painted my 3d printed frog. (The violin bow has a “frog” and I often hold up frogs to remind my students to get all the way back to the frog on long bows.) I also received a lovely poinsettia plant, which are not good for cats. I read recently that poinsettias are NOT toxic to cats, don’t worry! They only cause vomiting and diarrhea. So, still good to avoid it (and yes, Muriel will definitely eat the plant if she can) but perhaps you don’t need to take your cat to the vet, just let it run its course? Not taking any chances either way.

We are still a multi-cultural household, so I like to light our electric menorah in the front to show that not everybody in our neighborhood is Christian (Louie is of Jewish descent and celebrates many holidays). He’s been visiting family in California (jealous, so much warmer I’m sure!) while I’ve been finishing up work here and holding down the fort in terms of weird new house things that have to be taken care of. The weather joke is on him though as he’ll be returning to single digit temperatures if not lower. HAHA!

Oh, and I joined mastodon, follow me there if you like. I’m definitely still finding my way around so don’t ask any questions 🙂

@hannahviolin@mastodon.sdf.org