This year I started following the lovely San over at The In Between Is Mine; she is so smart and articulate, and I am forever fascinated by people who are fully fluent in more than one language, as she is; English is not her first language and yet her English is perfect. I mean, I took YEARS of French – I was even the winner of the French Award in Grade 9 – and although if I read a page of French I would be able to get the general gist of it, I cannot have a conversation beyond Salut! Comment ca va?, let alone WRITE anything in French. In any case, I love San’s blog and I also love that she put together a Secret Santa Mug Swap, which I happily signed up for, knowing that it would be well-organized and smooth.
I came home from a walk this week to find a package on the doorstep; I didn’t recognize the name or return address, and was briefly confused before remembering SECRET SANTA MUG SWAP!!!
Just imagine my delight to open this lovely box from Leanne (HI LEANNE!) that was decorated by her daughter:
Not only did she include the sweetest, coziest mug, mint chocolates (MY FAVOURITE!!! TEAM MINT CHOCOLATE FOREVER!), an adorable mug ornament for my tree, and a BRACELET HANDMADE BY HER DAUGHTER, but she also added a lottery scratch ticket, and I won $5!
I feel like I won the lottery in more ways than one. Thank you, Leanne, for such a kind and thoughtful package. It certainly brightened my entire month! I cannot get over your wonderful generosity and thoughtfulness! And again, thank you, San, for organizing #secretsantamugswap2021; it has been a great way to meet and connect with new people. There are so many incredible people in the world, I am honoured to know so many – and welcome, Leanne, to the Boyhouse!
Much, much less exciting than opening up a lovely package full of wonderful surprises was that my younger son developed a terrible head cold. This is the first cold in our house in over two years. Sneezing, it’s so 2019! He missed three and a half days of school, which, in Grade 11 requires MUCH catch-up work, and an entire week of wrestling practice, which was most devastating to him. I mean, he probably picked up the cold during wrestling practice, as it is the only time he is unmasked when not at home. I have been waiting for the rest of us to succumb; so far, no one has, let us all knock on wood.
Over the past few weeks, I have received numerous texts from friends about the grocery situation; we have been all updating each other regularly. Due to the devastating flooding in BC, and the resulting completely washed-out highways, things have been wildly hit and miss in the grocery store. One afternoon two weeks ago a friend texted me to say that the produce shelves were empty – literally, empty – but then the next day as I anxiously wheeled my cart into Superstore, I was pleasantly surprised to see business as usual in the produce section. I had spent the day before mentally planning to use frozen produce and figure out a whole new menu plan, which turned out to be unnecessary.
We are so lucky to live in this day and age. I was reminded of The Long Winter, wherein the Ingalls family and the entire town of DeSmet nearly starved to death as the trains carrying supplies were unable to make it through due to blizzards; I thought well, if I have to use frozen spinach in my smoothies, it will not be a tragedy. It’s not like I’m grinding wheat in my coffee grinder to make a single loaf of bread for six people, or going slowly mad sitting in the dark all day listening to the wind, or twisting hay to burn so as to not freeze to death prior to starving to death.
Although there have been produce shortages here and there, that has not been my experience as of yet. However, I found that anything coming in from the port of Vancouver is…still at the port of Vancouver? I don’t really know how it works. In any case, things coming from China and its neighbours, like rice, noodles, and things like sesame oil, are completely unavailable.
Fortunately I had the foresight to buy a 25-pound bag of rice and several bags of noodles when the flooding started, which should last us a while. Stir-fry night, like my heart, shall go on.
This week was also the much-anticipated unveiling of the annual Spotify Unwrapped, and as always, I was somewhat surprised. I wasn’t at all surprised to see that Aretha Franklin was my number-one artist – LOVE Aretha; I will never get enough of watching this video, that FUR COAT DROP, QUEEN – but I was a little surprised that none of her songs were on my top five. Yes, I know how math and algorithms work, but still. Did I really listen that much to Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch? I guess I must have. The algorithm does not lie. I also apparently listened to the Evita soundtrack quite a bit, as Andrew Lloyd Webber made my top five artists. You must love meeee….
My younger son, being home, compared his list to mine and it was quite funny. He’s the drummer and is very into 90s grunge, and his “Audio Aura” was Bold and Angst, whereas mine was Mellow and Happy, both of which check out. His fourth most popular genre was “Pirate” which I did not even know was a thing. Pirate? Apparently, in addition to his bold and angsty music, he listens to a number of sea shanties, so Pirate Mystery solved.
Pandemic Reading
Persephone’s Children. Wow, this book is like nothing I’ve read before. It is so original and creative, and incredibly moving. It’s a memoir of a woman’s journey to leave an abusive relationship, told in essay form BUT each of the essays is structurally very different. Think: script for a play, a multiple choice quiz, a crossword. There is a lot of mythology, horticulture, and magic woven into the story. It’s mostly about a biracial woman finding the strength to leave her emotionally abusive, gaslighting husband, but also about motherhood, her family of origins, and her experience growing up as “other” on the Canadian prairies. It’s an absolutely fascinating debut!
Christmas Shopaholic. I’m not sure I could put two more different books side by side! Anyway, this was very silly and sweet and ultimately satisfying. I have only read one other Shopaholic book – the OG one, many years ago – and when I first started reading this I thought maybe I should just quit while I’m ahead. I was NOT enjoying the first bit, but then I kind of got into it. It’s light, you know? Very Christmas spirit-y.
Glorious Frazzled Beings. My friend Marion (HI MARION) loaned me all five of the 2021 Giller Prize Shortlist! I don’t think I’ve ever read a whole shortlist for a literary prize before, so this is pretty fun. I decided to start with this gem of a collection of short stories, and I feel like an entire university Can Lit course could be created just around this one book. The writing is gorgeous, with lots of magic, otherworldliness, and more-than-humanness, which is not generally something I enjoy, but I did in this book.
Happy December, everyone, I hope you have a wonderful week. xo
That’s quite a secret Santa package.
I got my first cold of the current era late last spring when North went back to in-person school part-time, although they didn’t get sick so it might have been that I was starting to take public transportation more frequently around the same time. None of us have been sick since then. Masks work!
They do work and I shall never fly again without one one!
OMG, that Aretha clip! I needed that on this freezing rain Monday morning 🙂 My Spotify list was…interesting. Wistful and happy. It also confirmed what I already know—I am a rocker at heart, with a soft spot for folk and more mellow tunes. And I’m with your son on the grunge front, but wtf is pirate!!??
Pirate! Sea shanties, apparently. Who knew? ARETHA WAS A LITERAL QUEEN. God, I love that woman. RIP!
Salut, Nicole! Comment ca va? (That, too, is the extent of my French. Although I do have a fairly decent vocabulary; I just can’t form real sentences.) I love your Secret Santa package and I need to get my hands on some of those chocolate mints.
I had to take a deep, steadying breath when I saw the photo of the empty shelves.
Favorite part: “Stir-fry night, like my heart, shall go on.”
I am the same way! I can understand written word but cannot form sentences myself!
Wow! That was a very thoughtful Secret Santa package.
I don’t listen to Spotify very much (mostly when I’m running), but I’m always interested in other people’s lists because everyone acts like their music choices are normal, but everyone is different. I don’t listen to the Four Tops or Aretha Franklin unless I’m at the grocery store, but it’s just a thing you do. Fascinating!
I know exactly what you mean, and if you saw my running playlist, you might laugh as it’s so different from my “listening in the house” Aretha-heavy playlist! I am constantly fascinated by other people’s playlists!
What a fun ornament! I don’t think I’ve ever seen a mug, but that is clearly so brilliant for just about any adult and their hot beverage of choice!
I really had a great time participating in San’s Secret Santa exchange and loved receiving my parcel from you 🙂 A fun note of whimsy!
I’m so glad that San hosted the exchange and I got to “meet” you – I love your blog! It’s so fun to have new internet friends!
I love seeing people’s music roundups, because once the algorithm thinks it knows you, it’s like other artists cease to exist! I hope everyone else manages to be free from the dreaded cold. Being sick is always terrible, but the other day I was thinking how I really missed having sick days – laying on the couch doing nothing. Can we do non-sick sick days??
You know, I kind of DID think of that – hmmm…it would be nice to be totally off-duty for a couple of days. I think non-sick sick days should be a thing!
Favorite line: SNEEZING IS SO 2019. Hilarious. A cold went through our house a few weeks ago and didn’t bother me, but my people went down hard. This cold was brought to us by the toddlers I sit for. Occupational hazard.
Love the mug exchange. Such a fun idea and you got such a great gift giver.
The food shortage thing is unfortunate, but as always you have a great perspective. Not surprising that you know many more details about Laura and Little House on the Prairie than I recall.
TODDLERS! They are such germ factories!
Yes! Non sick sick days should be a thing. I’ve been subbing at my girls school and all the teachers have been sick! My daughter had it a few weeks back, also missing 3 days of school. Needless to say I wore my N95 mask from Costco all 3 days I was there!
Two more kids from his wrestling team are down with the cold now so I guess that’s where it came from! It’s going around – after such a healthy season last year, I guess we are catching up!
Great swap! Those can be so much fun, and it seems you got a generous partner!
Sorry about those shortages. We see hints of them, too, and it’s unsettling. Another thing we see are massive container ships, miles off shore, and in line to deliver to the port in Long Beach, California… I Googled: It’s 55 nautical miles from San Diego to Long Beach. My husband found a website that lists the names of the ships and the general positions as they line up.
I hope the cold doesn’t spread, that your son is recovered and caught up, soon! I do not miss colds!
Oh, that’s interesting! I wonder how long it will take for them to actually get to port and unload. What strange times we are living in!
There was a fascinating story on 60 Minutes about this port a couple of weeks ago. It explains all the many reasons for the shortages and backlogs. It might be able to be seen online!
Thanks Anna!
I love your secret Santa mug gifts; so very sweet and SO you! I do hope you invest that five bucks into another lottery ticket, maybe you’ll be a hundred-aire next! I do love an unexpected surprise.
The produce, shopping shortages are crazy. But you are right, it’s not like we’re in Ingalls’ time; you will make it just fine. I’ve not noticed anything like that way down here, but you never know.
This secret Santa mug swap was so fun! Leanne really went above and beyond- love the mug ornament. Hope your son is feeling better! Yes, it’s hard to miss school in 11th grade. I remember my son would just go to school anyway if he was sick (you can’t do that now, obviously) because he said it was easier than having to make up all the work. I also hope the rest of your family stays healthy!
What a thoughtful Secret Santa gift! The mug ornament is so cute.
My Spotify wrapped is always way too embarrassing to post and talk about, haha. Looooots of Taylor Swift, that’s about it.
Those empty shelves are crazy! I hope things get better. <3
Oh dear Nicole, I am blushing over here what with all the wonderful things you had to say about me and my language skills *cough* (thank you! I appreciate your kind words) and organizing the Secret Santa Swap.
I am so, so glad that we met this year, you feel like a kindred spirit… and I love that you participated in the swap and had such a great first experience.
People like you – and the other swapper – make the holiday season just a tad brighter! <3
I’m so happy we “met!!”
Hi Nicole! I just read this sweet post 🙂 I’ve gotten a little behind on reading my favourite blogs and have kind of been feeling the blahs and the blues lately, though it’s reassuring to see this has been a norm for so many this holiday and that it’s not just me. Anyways, we made it through and actually did have some really great times. Here’s to 2022 and hopefully a return to school soon! 💜