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Like many of you we have been busy preparing for the holidays.  We got a tall thin artificial tree from a friend; it just fits into the corner in front of our bookcase. We have missed having a Christmas tree (no room in the old RV) and enjoyed decorating it with inexpensive and homemade ornaments.  We hung lights and a garland and stockings along the edge of our pop-out in the living room and made handcrafted presents for teachers just in time for the last day of school.

We have also been busy dealing with various things that are breaking around the house!  Our propane system sprung a leak, emptying out one tank entirely and putting an end to holiday baking since our stove and oven depend on propane.  Figuring out the problem, and fixing the leak, took some time but we are back on line as of today – just in time to bake and decorate cookies.

In an unrelated kitchen incident, the shelves in our pantry abruptly collapsed, dumping cans and pasta all over the floor!  The problem seems to be the very thin plywood used for interior walls and shelves.  They cannot support the weight of canned food, bags of flour, pasta and beans.  An interim repair lasted less than a day before the floor collapsed so I ended up ripping out the shelves.  We have another less than perfect interim solution – a small plastic shelf unit – but it doesn’t hold nearly the contents of the pantry so more food has been stored under my bed in a plastic tub.  I think a more permanent solution would require building a frame for shelves and, after shoring up the floor in some fashion, installing it in the tall narrow space.  I’ve ‘shelved’ that idea for now – too much other stuff on my plate.

I’ve also been working on my various part-time jobs.  I finished the archaeology survey report last Friday and sent it to the client along with the invoice only to receive an ‘out of office’ email in return.  The client is off on vacation and will return on January 3rd (and hopefully send a check soon after).  It was a good reminder of the importance of communication!

I put in quite a few hours doing eBay listings and helping to pack up my friend’s warehouse, finishing on Monday this week.  She’s been in this business for years but is finding it harder and harder to make a living so she’s pulling back and focusing just on her store.  I’ve sold a few cat beds, and made more (see the Etsy shop) and today submitted my first commercial blog post (I have a contract for 2 posts a week for 5 weeks at $15 a post).

In other employment news, there’s… no news!  No word from the school district on the Assistant Director of Nutrition job – and they are out for the holiday so I don’t expect I will hear until January if at all.  And speaking of school – I did get approved for a small amount of financial aid, enough to pay the tuition for the course I planned to begin in January but by the time I heard from the aid folks the course had completely filled up and is currently closed to new students.  So I’m a bit at loose ends now.  I have a paper to edit (a math professor’s journal article) and the blog posts to write but that’s all that has been scheduled.  I’m hoping things will pick up after the holidays.

I would like to thank all our readers who have contributed to our Holiday Cheer in many ways from shopping through our Amazon.com link to sending gifts and warm wishes for the New Year.  Your kindness is much appreciated and I assure you we will have a very happy Christmas this year.  I hope you will all enjoy the holidays with loved ones and stay safe in your travels!  Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah!

Ben phoned me today to say that Tricia had died.  I was thinking just hours before his call that I needed to go by and see her again – visiting sort of got lost in the busy Thanksgiving break.  Her son is dealing with the cremation; there won’t be a service.  I met Tricia over 3 years ago (before our job and house loss) – you can read about that first meeting in my blog post, In Sickness, – when I stopped to give a few dollars to a panhandler.  That panhandler turned out to be Ben and that chance meeting brought a couple of weathered and weary but gentle and good souls into our lives.  Tricia (although introduced to me as Patricia, she preferred the nickname) drank and smoked and sometimes used language I wished she wouldn’t around the kids.  But she loved Jesus, liked to read mysteries, and called me sister.  She liked the children and when I picked her up to take her on errands or to doctor appointments she asked after them.  She picked up little things for them – small stuffed animals, a talking piggy bank (this to replace a ceramic piggy that she and Ben had filled with change and given to the kids for Christmas one year).  She liked curly fries from Jack in the Box and we would swing by there after errands.  She didn’t like living on the street (or out in the bush); her dream was to find a little apartment where she and Ben could have their dog Goldie.  She didn’t make it to that apartment but at least was able to spend the last several months in a motel after the authorities cleaned out the river bed campground.  She was a good, kindhearted person, made rough around the edges by some wrong turns and bad luck.  I’m so glad I had the chance to look beyond the outward appearances and see, just a little I’m sure, the good person she was.