First, CootieGirl is in her new room and while it’s still a mess (lots of pictures still need to go on the wall, one closet needs to be cleaned out a bit so she can put her stuff in there, and she’s just generally a messy girl), she loves it. She has a lot more room, her room is brighter now that she has a south-facing window, and she has more privacy now that her room is at the end of the hall instead of right at the top of the stairs.
Second, last month she applied to a local community college and received word earlier this week that she was accepted. We knew she would, but the important piece is that she’ll be able to do an easy no-hassle transfer to a university about 20 minutes away in her junior year since the schools have a partnership for that very thing. I know she’s relieved that it’s done.
Third, I never did any Bake Off baking. That is because at some point I realized our house is JAM PACKED with sweets. There was no need at all for me to bake ANYthing. And all these weeks later there is STILL no need for me to bake anything. Normally we bake 10-12 kinds of cookies to give away for our White Elephant party, but this year we didn’t have a party because of COVID, so we didn’t bake. BUT, I loved this season of Bake Off and was really pleased with the winner. Although I think Hermine was robbed and should have been in the finals.
Fourth, CootieBoy is nowhere closer to get a driver’s license than he was two months ago. We went driving a few times, but he’s just not interested. I don’t understand.
Fifth, we are staying home for the upcoming holidays this year. We went to Virginia over Thanksgiving to spend time with my family, who we had not seen in a year. So we headed up for a quick three days where we celebrated BOTH Thanksgiving and Christmas. It was a fun weekend and I’m glad we made the trip.
Sixth, it is December 11 and we have not decorated the inside of our house for Christmas yet. I’m not in the mood, to be honest. We also did a very minimal display outside (no radio show with dancing lights, and only about 20 animals and inflatables). We didn’t even put wreaths on the windows or over the garage. Whatever we could put up in two hours, that’s what our display ended up being. With any luck next year I’ll get in the Christmas spirit and put up the whole display. As for the inside of the house, I told Denis that I’ll probably just put up one tree, possibly this weekend. But nothing else.
Seventh, my Hallmark website continues to go really well. I’ve had a spike of visitors over the past two months when the Christmas movies started, which is nice. In fact, here’s a sample of what my monthly stats look like since July. The pink is the current month (December) AND is as of today, December 11. So clearly December is easily going to double the visitors I had in November, which is more than double what I had in October. It’s exciting to watch the trendline since I started taking that hobby more seriously. And over the past year, I’ve had a blast interviewing writers, producers, singers, and actors. And I’ve already got two interviews slated for 2021 – an actor in January and a scriptwriter in April.
Eighth, work is going well. My annual review was pain-free and I even got a small year-end bonus. That bonus pretty much went straight into my vacation savings account which I used on Dobby the Dog who kept having to go to the vet for UTIs the first half of the year. Now that he is on proper meds (which he’ll need the rest of his life) he is back to normal AND thanks to my bonus my vacation savings has been replenished. Now let’s hope I can use it on vacations in 2021! I had three get canceled in 2020 – hopefully, I can get them re-scheduled for 2021.
Ninth, the podcasts are going well. The one CG and I do together actually has more listeners than my original podcast, which is funny considering I do NO social media for that one. But somehow people are finding the show and listening to it.
Tenth, since I don’t know when I’ll next log in, I hope you and yours have a very merry holiday and a blessed new year. I know 2020 was a bit of a mess, but I hope you can see the brightness within the dark, and that 2021 is better for all of us.
