A Late Afternoon Iced Drink Chat: Final Farewell to 2021

I'll be brief since we shall be having Shabat candle lighting in about 30 minutes, but I so wanted to get in one chatty post this month and this is my last chance!

First of all, Happy New Year to you all.

Why an iced drink chat?  Honey, it is hot out there! 82f with lots of humidity and heaviness.  We've had sunshine and clear skies today, but it has been clouded and sullen for a week.   We had thunderstorms yesterday, and a nearer acquaintance had tornado watches in her area just north of us.  There's more such weather in our forecast for the next week with one really cold day tossed in to throw us off track.

  

John and I had a free day today, probably the last we'll have for quite some time to come except on weekends.  We spent the day working hard.  John did two or three loads of laundry and vacuumed the house.   I cleaned and organized several areas.  I also made a loaf of bread.   By noon, we had done all the work we wanted to do and headed out for a date.  

Mama called just before we left home to ask us to come by her house briefly.  She didn't want us to visit, as she's got Shingles and doesn't want to expose us, especially myself since I have had Shingles in the past and she was afraid of triggering another episode by exposing me.   She gave me a short grocery list.  I picked up some soup (her mouth is involved as mine was when I had an outbreak), and some flowers and apple fritters to try and cheer her along.   

I didn't tell her we'd not really set plans as to where we were going.  In fact, I'd planned to ask John to head northwest of our home to the little mill town in the foothills we go to on occasion, but it was no hardship to head over east of us instead and do what was necessary there.

While in the grocery, I picked up a submarine sandwich and some hot wings for our meals tomorrow.  I typically don't cook on New Year's Day except to make our holiday breakfast of sweet rolls.  I visited a store branch that I typically only shop for Mama and found no turkey sausage at all and only six rolls of pork sausage in the meat case.  Otherwise, things looked fairly well stocked.  I didn't walk down the dairy or freezer aisles at all.  In fact, I tried hard to limit how many aisles I walked down.  Despite that my total shocked me no end.  One big expense was dogfood for Mama's little Spitz.  She spoils that dog and it's perfectly shocking to me what she spends on food for her.  

Even without the dog food though, I spent enough to make me think twice.   Mind you, I also purchased flowers for myself because the ones I chose for Mama were so very pretty and I have promised to be kinder to me in the year ahead.  No, it's not quite the New Year, but Granny always said to 'Start out as you mean to go on," and I figured I wanted to start the New Year with pretty flowers.  I can honestly say that flowers still cost about what they always have in the grocery, and both were lush and lovely bouquets for a very reasonable cost.

We went by Mama's afterwards and I sat in the car while John visited with her briefly.  He stood on one side of the room, and she sat way over on the other side.  I expected him to stay and talk a bit and he did.  I sat in the car with the windows down and was grateful for the breeze although it was a hot breeze.  Any moving air had a cooling effect and was most welcome.   

When John came out about 15 minutes or so later, I asked about Mama's appearance.  He told me she appeared to be fine, but he could see the spread of the Shingles on her face, and she looked as though she felt unwell.  Well of course she did!   Shingles are tough on your body, and they hurt.  It takes a little while to get through the whole thing.   Hers is complicated in that she refuses absolutely and most stubbornly to call or see her doctor at all.   John asked her the same questions I've asked, recommended the same things I recommended and her reply to each was a stubborn refusal to do anything except what she's doing.  Sigh.  

Given that we were already in Perry, John naturally opted to go to our favorite Longhorn restaurant, the one that is tucked away next to the interstate but is so peaceful and sheltered that you completely disregard the fact that the interstate is just behind the building.   Service is always so good there and the food has only failed to please us twice in all the years we've been going there.  Given that I myself can ruin a meal at least a few times a year, I've made the allowance of someone else having an off day in the kitchen and we've kept on going back.

On our way home, we ran by to drop something off for Sam and Bess.  Josh showed us how well he can already ride his new bike.   Isaac apparently hasn't practiced as much and isn't quite as interested as Josh has been, but I'll bet you that by summer of this New Year he'll have it mastered.  He is still just four.  I have to remind myself and John both that he's still just a little boy as he was so fond of telling us after Millie was born.  It's the going to school thing that tricks our minds into thinking he's older than he is.    Millie came out to tell us bye but kept her distance.  I think she was afraid we'd take her home with us if she got too close.  

Bess was wearing shorts and a t-shirt.  I told her she was certainly dressed appropriately for the weather.  I saw many and many a person today who was wearing sweatpants or heavy clothing and they all were glistening mightily.  Bess looked comfortable.

While we were visiting, Josh asked if they could come over to our house and I suggested they come over in the morning and stay through lunch with us.   All three will come.   Millie will come, too.  She'll walk over with Isaac, but Josh wants to ride his bike here.   Isaac and Josh will likely want to play on the Kindles, though Isaac will get up and periodically play with some toys.   Millie will happily play on her own or sit in someone's lap.  Then she'll start telling us goodbye to let us know she's ready to go home.   She'll stay here with the boys, however.  We enjoy being able to get her to ourselves and give the parents a full break from all children for a few hours.  

I warned the boys ahead of time that we were having sandwiches for lunch tomorrow.  They'll not be disappointed that I don't have anything else for them to choose from that way.  Josh asked if he might have mustard on his sandwich.  I assured him he could.  Isaac said he just wanted cheese and I told him he could take the turkey off his if he wished.  Millie will eat a bit of whatever is put before her or not, as her appetite dictates.

I think I've shared before that my not cooking on New Year's Day is something John put into place.   I used to make a traditional Southern meal for New Year's Day.  In my family it was customary to have Pork, Greens, Black Eyed Peas, Rice and Cornbread every New Year's Day.  The cut of pork didn't matter.  It could be a pork roast, ham, chops or ribs.  It just had to be pork.  The pork represented the 'fat' part of the year ahead.   The peas and rice and greens represented the money of the year ahead.  The cornbread was just there to sop up all the good juiciness of everything else off the plate!

I long ago stopped following that old tradition.  First, we gave up pork and started eating chicken, usually fried but sometimes barbecued.  The children didn't like the greens and having grown up eating fresh, I was prone to want to eat them fresh but that is a lot of work if you've limited time to prepare them.  They are so hard to wash to get the grit from them and they smell to high heaven cooking.  I think it was the smell of the cooking of them that put the children off.   We switched to eating cabbage.   For some reason, John just never could embrace the tradition of it which did border on superstition in some households, but we saw no great change of finances regardless of how we ate on the day, so I never bought into it.   

One year he asked if we couldn't just start a tradition of our own.  He predictably said he wanted sandwiches.   Submarine sandwiches were a luxury for us at the time, so we splurged and bought submarine sandwiches each New Year's Eve and here we are so many years later still eating sandwiches on New Year's Day.   And no, there's been no noticeable rise or fall in our financial standing.  If I miss the old traditions, it's because I am older and more nostalgic about the things that were constant for much of my life, and I do have fond memories of days long past in many ways.

Years ago, when Katie left home and later when Bess came into the family, both expressed a regret over the loss of their old family traditions for holidays.  I explained to them both, at the time of their sad regrets, that traditions are often replaced over time.  They are, like most of life, seasonal things.  It doesn't pay us well to be too tightly tied to 'always'.    It leads to disappointment more often than not because someone or something will interfere, and we'll feel the day was spoiled.   I suggested they each replicate what they wanted most to enjoy if they could and to form new traditions that suited their new place and purpose in life at the same time.  I also told them to expect traditions to change over time.  

There have been New Year's Days I've spent utterly alone.  I had my Subway Sandwich at home and John had his in his lunch.  A few years, I was invited to spend the day with Mama or with John's partner's family and ate something different.   But for the most part, we have had Submarine sandwiches for the past 20 years or so.

I seriously considered returning to the transitional part of our old Southern tradition, where we ate chicken and peas and greens this year, but t as I was about to go into the grocery, I asked John what he'd like to have.  "Submarine sandwiches" he said, and I nodded and thought of how much easier it was to pick up a ready-made sandwich.   He thinks he's treating me to something nice.  There'd be no dishes and no fuss.  I could relax and enjoy the day.   I felt a momentary regret at not having the old foods but not hard regret.   Then Josh asked if they might come visit, and I was glad we'd decided on the sandwich.  The boys will at least eat the bread and cheese and maybe the meat.  Isaac will eat the tomato and they'll both enjoy the pickles I bought to go with the sandwich.   I chose to add in the chicken wings because they are something we typically don't make here at home.  These I purchased are already cooked and sauced and a treat.   The boys won't touch them.

I saw the funniest Meme today.  It suits John and I perfectly.  It was about New Year's Eve.   It said, "I still haven't decided what I'm wearing to the living room for New Year's Eve tonight...I'm not even sure I'm going."    I laughed out loud.   New Year's Eve has almost always been a night I've been at home and gone nowhere.

Somewhere in Amie's teen years, she expressed a desire to celebrate.  We made finger foods and served sparkling cider and watched the ball drop at Times Square.  I think we did that for two or three years and then she left home and no one else really wanted to stay up that late.  For years, John and I have awakened somewhere shortly after midnight and one of us murmurs "You awake?  I love you!" and "Love you, too", and then whoever said it first replies to the other one "I said it first this year!" as though we had been in some competition.  It's a sweet little tradition all by itself.

Now, I shall close here and wish each of you a very happy New Year.  May you have sweet moments of making memories to last a lifetime.  May you be wise and strong enough for whatever faces you.   May you have peace.  

Hugs to each and everyone!