White Christmas

I can now retire the "coloured Christmas blog title" tradition, because we had a white Christmas this year.

 In 2019, due to a lot of sad news, I made a post called "Blue Christmas" as a play off the phrase "White Christmas". It carried over the next year in 2020 when we were using a colour coded system to track COVID cases and decide precautionary measures. Grey was the worst on the scale, and meant lockdown. That's where we were at, so I titled that post "Grey Christmas" to play off the previous year. Then we almost had a white Christmas in 2021 but we had a flash thaw so I titled that "Brown Christmas", and now in 2022 I can finally let the theme go.

In fact it was a really white Christmas. We had planned to go to Brampton to see Lee-Anne's family, as we visited my side last week. There were weather warnings and Lee-Anne headed up on the Thursday, missing the worst of it. I came two days later on the Saturday when things were supposed to be bad. Luckily I made it without much issue.

This wasn't the case for everyone. All flights going out from Pearson Airport in Toronto got cancelled. There was a story about people getting snowed in at a Wal Mart in Chatham and having to stay overnight, and trains getting stuck for long stretches of time.

I felt bad leaving the cats behind in a natural disaster. I kept imagining pipes freezing and bursting, or frozen branches falling on the house. Our upstairs neighbours are gone right now, which added to the anxiety of leaving the house empty. But we're back now and everything was fine.

Before I left, the garbage bins kept blowing everywhere. I tried to secure them but had no confidence they would stay put. I was kicking myself for not thinking to put them in the garage or something, but somehow they were where I left them when we got back.

Lee-Anne's mom is very generous at Christmas, and this year I got a charcoal chimney, which is a tool that lights charcoal grills without the need for lighter fluid. I've been wanting one for awhile, but it's not something I'd bother buying for myself and my birthday is at the end of barbecue season. Even though it's out of season right now, it's a little closer to the next barbecue season.

As a joint present, we got a new spice wrack. We already had a very nice spice wrack, that I got when I helped a friend's sister move in college. It had bottles with metal engravings of the leaves of each represented spice. I was very proud of it, but my tarragon and coriander bottles broke. Also, during our roach infestation, some of them got into the crevices of the spice wrack, and even though we've dealt with the issue, it's felt a little... tainted since then.

Anyway, we're moving up from a six (started at eight) spice wrack, to a 24.

The new wrack contains: onion powder, turmeric, allspice, chili powder, cardamom, cinnamon sticks, rosemary, cumin, garam masala, chipotle, dill, black sesame, coriander, ground cinnamon, ground savory, cream of tartar, nutmeg, ancho chili pepper, cloves, caraway seeds, summer savory leaves, and white pepper

Of these, I don't know how white pepper differs from black pepper. I also know that baking powder is made of baking soda and cream of tartar, and that you're supposed to use baking soda to make a "bath" for pretzels and bagels before baking, but I don't know what you're supposed to use cream of tartar on its own for. Also, very weird name when it isn't a cream. There's ground savory and summer savory leaves, but I don't know what either of these things are.

In fact, despite having 24 spices, my old 6 spice wrack had the following that are not available on the new one: thyme, sage, basil, and oregano.

The good news is that this new wrack is a McCormick, which is a common brand of spice that you can buy in reusable bottles at most grocery store. In fact, we already had thyme and cayenne pepper in the appropriate bottles before getting the wrack.

Lee-Anne got me a set of headphones. I broke my previous pair, which were still working but holding on by a wire. I was fairly content balancing the one side on my shoulder, but it's nice to have an intact pair again. She also got me a tarot tracker. It's made by the person she got her deck from, so it's someone we've vetted. It has a proposed year ahead spread, which I'll likely use on the new year, and a bi-weekly 6-card draw, and a daily single card draw, to use for reflection. We'll see if I keep up with that.

As for my present to her, she had a set of bowls that she'd gotten with her mother like ten years ago. Since we moved in, one broke and the other one looks like it's preparing to break. She's tried to find replacements, but hasn't found anything as vibrant as what she had. She made me promise not to buy dish sets without consulting her, so I did check in with her. She responded with "Where did you find those?!", so I ordered them. They haven't shown up yet.

Here's the url. I'll post a pic if they arrive in person: https://www.wayfair.ca/dining/pdp/wrought-studio-12-piece-dinnerware-set-service-for-4-c009490364.html?piid=615698983

Between this and the hand-carved bowls I bought for my mom and brother, I bought a lot of bowls this Christmas