I put the living room back in order, a little sad to do it. The tree was an anchor to happy times with Peter. The passage of time doesn’t bring a lot of pleasure, truth be told.

We had 3-4 inches of snow last night. Ron cleared the driveway.

Meanwhile, I made lunch of soy curls and a canned vegetable soup. With the addition of nutritional yeast and garlic, quite tasty.

Dropped off the electronics kit and a disappointing novel at the Library.

We watched “Respect” starring Jennifer Hudson.

Did laundry, changed sheets.

After breakfast, we unwrapped our gifts from Jan.

We had lunch at the American Legion, where we were joined by a lively gent from Petersboro NY who is making a film about his life in Canada’s Northwest.

We were given a generous veg lunch and sent home with four sandwiches, crackers and cheese, a whole apple pie and two poinsettias.

I’m watching the sunset, too full to move a whole lot. Anyway, I’ve done the wreaths, the lights and the tree and am perfectly happy to stop doing anything for now. Plus I’ve gained weight this month and it’s slowing me down.

I mixed up coldcuts from the sandwiches in Jett’s food, and of course he ate it ferociously. Ron was nice enough to take him out to fetch. He’s making hot toddies for us now.

Ron was not up to helping with the tree, so:

I cut off enough of the double trunk with a hand saw to fit it into the tree stand.

It took a while to get it even moderately secure and unfortunately, I couldn’t fit the trunks, the water dish and the three “feet” in the stand ring. So I left off the water dish; fingers crossed the tree doesn’t dry out too fast.

It’s a small tree but it had room for two sets of lights as well as three wooden garlands. I worked the rest of the afternoon on hanging the ornaments.

Ron did a shop since just about everything will be closed tomorrow.

We bought a tree at a farmstand on Monday, only to find out later that Carr’s and Duke’s had free ones.

MadMacs squared away Ron’s phone, which had inadvertently been set to double clicks during a system upgrade.

We stopped at the North Adams library so I could take photos of the Christmas decorations.

Ron dropped off and picked up a library book for me, The Mare. I’ve not had good luck with book selections recently.

Sent Robert and Bennett their Christmas money yesterday. Leaving James alone until he gets in touch, he’s been “distant” and seems to need a break.

Pizza for supper yesterday; Jett ate the last piece and it didn’t agree with him!

I slept for 12 hours last night.

Made it to the Farmer’s Market at Greylock Works today. Got cheese and gifts for our neighbors.

Stopped in to the Solstice celebration at Wild Soul River complete with roast chestnuts (very good) and a sale of artisan products at Williamstown Coffee Shop.

Laughed until I cried at Ron and Jett’s hijinks.

The touchpad on Ron’s iPhone stopped working after its last system update.

I’ve researched and tried numerous times – too many times – to get it working again.

Meanwhile, I’ve created a 2026 database for MRS and have the calendar working for both the school and the BRC.

Did laundry, changed sheets. Fixed the hasp on Ron’s “little room” door.

After some hunting around, I was able to read the Vanity Fair interview with Susie Wiles Trump’s Chief of Staff. The melodramatic reactions on both sides are overblown in my opinion.

Jett and I went to the library to drop off a book and pick one up. I brought home a kit of electrical engineering projects.

We went to Stop & Shop as well.

Gorgeous sunset.

Rain melted the rest of the snow on the deck. It was 54 or so this morning but plummeting fast.

We got a break from the rain around 3. Ron used the time to exercise Jett. I installed the web of lights on the front bushes and cleaned up Jett’s trumps in the back and side yards. Grateful that we beat the rain/snow mix which is happening now.

Earlier I made a chickpea/potato/kale stew with ras el hanout, garlic and soy sauce. Turned out well. I also made chocolate pudding.

…but I did run off the holiday card address labels. They weren’t perfect but good enough to use. Ron and I got 24 signed and stamped. We actually had enough stamps…

Also got tasks done for MRS. Loaded two more modules on their IIS server.

Yesterday I brought home groceries from the Food Pantry and the Food Project. Made a fine stir fry today from that bounty.

Also brought home two bags of pet-safe ice melt. Ron put them in a barrel; we spread a few handfuls on the deck.

Ron broke a Pyrex container with beautiful cut fruit from Williams College. There was no reason for this nor for his nerve in dictating how I should clean it up!

Good report today from my dermatologist. She doesn’t need to see me for two years.

In addition to being free of skin cancer, I am minus two unwanted skin tags.

We stopped at an art store in Bennington to see if they have material to fix a damaged picture frame but they weren’t able to help.

I’d wanted to give Jett a bath at Tractor Supply but Ron wasn’t up to it. He had plans to do errands when we got back.

We did stop at a couple of places to look at Christmas trees but too expensive.

I cleaned up trumps and played with Jett for a good while this afternoon.

Maybe it was the long sleep last night, but I got outside today. It was cold, 20 degrees. Slight wind in the afternoon made it seem colder.

Played 30 fetches with Jett, twice.

Made stir-fried vegetables with eggs for lunch.

Tried clearing the upstairs bathroom sink, again.

We did laundry.

Glad we have only ten days until Christmas.