A Quiet Christmas

This post will gloss over four weeks. I'm in West Virginia so I don't have my office wall calendar (old school, I know) to jog my memory as to what I got up to during the first two weeks of December, before I left for the US. From Google photos I see that I went to the year-end golf dinner. A bit Cruella-ish, but so be it. It was a fun night with lots of dancing.

I remember writing and delivering lots of cards and presents and decking the halls. I had two dogs visit one day who will be at my house for five days in the middle of my three-week absence. The visit was to help them get used to my house. Paddy helped by playing with all their toys.

I went to a funeral for David Doyle, who founded a hiking group I used to hike with. It's so sad how we rarely appreciate people fully – their uniqueness and their accomplishments – until they're gone. There will be a memorial hike for him while I'm in the US, I'll be sorry to miss it.

Before I leave for Christmas, I deck my table for the holidays in case that is of any use to my house sitter. And because it looks festive. Madeira wine didn't make it into the decanter – I think I'm afraid of it being accessible!

The 18-hour trip to Columbus was uneventful. Then the bus to Parkersburg on 16 Dec., where mom was thrilled to see me safely home.

Since then, we have seen the films Joy, Judy and Wicked, all very good. I watched two films on the plane but can remember only one. I've read the Richard Harris book An Officer and a Spy about the Dreyfus Affair. A shocking story, whose broad outlines I was vaguely familiar with. Now reading Graham Norton's latest – one of my gifts for mom. I redecorated mom's table with goodies from Marks and Spencer.

We put on a luncheon for mom's friends.

We've been swimming 2 or 3 times each week. I'm trying to do my physical therapy every day. And some yoga. Christmas is always quiet, just the two of us. We had breakfast, opened presents then went to mass. Mom's presents included tiny jumpers from Oxfam, a fundraiser for women in Nepal. I put them on her reindeer, who are slaying, obviously.

My discomfort with being in America remains. The massive trucks with mufflers the size of a drainage pipe. Outside people's houses the day after Christmas piles of garbage the size of a small car. A t-shirt that says: 'These colors don't run, they reload'. I was in a sporting goods store today with an entire wall covered with rifles. Everything you buy goes into a plastic bag, every single thing. Strip mall after strip mall after strip mall.

I miss the BBC, I miss public transport and being able to walk to everything I need, I miss my dog, I miss tea shops where people go to chat over a cuppa. On the plus side, mom is in good health and in good spirits. For which I am very grateful.

December