Christmas this year was a quiet one at our house—no far-flung family members returning home for an annual visit; no days of menu planning and cookie baking; no December trips to Washington, D.C. or Boston to see the “Christmas Revels” Just the two of us at home with the cats, our Christmas tree, and the quiet of short midwinter days and long, cold nights.
A few moments of relief from the monotony of solitude brightened the season for us. The days of unseasonably warm weather allowed us to join other Daffodil Club members to plant bulbs at various locations in the county. Jim and I can’t wait to see the bursts of yellow, white, and pink when spring arrives.
Our son, Joe, and granddaughter, Emma, drove down from Alexandria to deliver Christmas presents in person. We hadn’t seen them since before the COVID-19 shutdown. We spoke to our daughter-in-law, Liz, in Hollywood, Florida, and our son, Mike, aboard a ship anchored off the coast of Hawaii since October.
We spent a quiet Christmas, no...