It’s starting to look like we won’t be traveling anywhere for a while.  Tom and I are not working at a National Park site until we get vaccinated for Covid-19, so we will be hanging around Ohio.  We’ve been here for six months now, which is the longest we’ve spent in Ohio since we retired.  What have we been doing?  Some of this and some of that.

I’ve managed to find things to write about every week, although you may be getting tired of seeing pictures of winter hikes.  So today I thought I would just throw together some of this and some of that.  Things that we have been doing that don’t get their own blog post but help keep our days interesting.

We continue to furnish and decorate our house.  Our sofa arrived in November, close to the time we finally put up some curtains.  Putting stuff up on the walls has been kind of the last thing to do and it is going slowly.  We decided to go with travel pictures and posters throughout the house.  If we can’t travel right now we can remember some of the places we have been.

We decorated the house for Christmas, although it was pretty understated.  We had some pretty multi-colored lights outside that we put on a timer.  It was nice to come home after dark and see them twinkling brightly.  I put up my Fontanini nativity set on our big table.  And that was pretty much it.  We didn’t put up a tree – we just didn’t want to spend any time in a store looking at one.  Mom and Dad and John and Jackie have trees, so we got to enjoy theirs.

John graduated with an MBA from Ohio University in December and we got to watch the virtual graduation.  We also spent a weekend dog-sitting so John and Jackie could get away to an Airbnb for a couple of days.

I managed to get out all my Christmas letters.  I wasn’t really motivated, but I figured most of our friends didn’t have our new address yet.  Thanks to those of you who made the effort to get a card to us at our new address.  We enjoyed them all.  I ordered Christmas presents from Amazon and wrapped them when they came.

We usually spend a couple of days a week with my parents and one day a week with John and Jackie.  This gets us out of the house a little and gives us something to look forward to.  Mom is keeping a running tab of who wins at dominoes.  She and I have also enjoyed playing cello and piano duets together.  We’ve recorded three to be used in the Lexington UMC worship services.

Some of this, some of that and the days pass.  We have a hard time keeping track of what day it is.  We watch online worship services on Sundays and have enjoyed rooting for the Browns and for Ohio State in football.  Tom and I watch movies, read, and work on our hobbies.  I put together puzzles on the big table and am finally starting to warp my big loom.

What is going on in your lives?  Anything new and exciting?  I take joy in each day, even if each day feels remarkably like the one before.  Life is good and we are blessed and healthy.  I am thankful.