Christmas challenge

by chuckofish

While my dear DP was having a meaningful experience in the Holy Land, I’ve been breathing dust and eating glutinous microwave dinners. The kitchen remodel has been going on for almost a month. Progress has been glacially slow, and there have been a few hiccups, but we’re getting there. We have a new window, a new range hood (new stove yet to arrive), painted walls, most of the floor, and the bare bones of the cupboards. What is taking so long, you ask? I wish I knew. It’s a tiny kitchen, after all.

While they were waiting for the paint to dry in the kitchen, they got working on the mudroom, which now looks like this:

The walls are actually cream and not yellow. It’s just the lighting at night that makes it look that way. Note the temporary 2 x 4 railing as well.

At least we can still use the back entry. My chief worry at this point — aside from the ever-rising cost — is whether the work will be done before son #3 arrives with his cat. Every room in my house is full of pots and pans, small appliances, and fragile antiques that I’m attempting to keep out of harm’s way — a situation that is hardly conducive to welcoming visitors, especially feline ones.

Alas, the house is in such disarray that I cannot put up any Christmas decorations. How does one get into the Christmas spirit under such conditions? Consider what Sigrid Undset wrote:

“And when we give each other Christmas gifts in His name, let us remember that He has given us the sun and the moon and the stars, and the earth with its forests and mountains and oceans–and all that lives and move upon them. He has given us all green things and everything that blossoms and bears fruit and all that we quarrel about and all that we have misused–and to save us from our foolishness, from all our sins, He came down to earth and gave us Himself.”

Here’s another good passage — this one from Henry Van Dyke — to remind us about what Christmas really means:

“Are you willing to stoop down and consider the needs and desires of little children; to remember the weaknesses and loneliness of people who are growing old; to stop asking how much your friends love you, and to ask yourself if you love them enough; to bear in mind the things that other people have to bear on their hearts; to trim your lamp so that it will give more light and less smoke, and to carry it in front so that your shadow will fall behind you; to make a grave for your ugly thoughts and a garden for your kindly feelings, with the gate open? Are you willing to do these things for a day? Then you are ready to keep Christmas!”

There. Now I feel better. I may not be able to decorate inside the house but I can still celebrate Christmas in my heart and in my actions. And who knows? Maybe the workers will have a burst of energy and be done with the kitchen by the end of next week. Stranger things have happened…

Finally, did you know that  Mark Knopfler and Gregory Alan Isakov  have new CDs, that you can follow Amor Towles on Instagram (he’s got some interesting photos), and that you can keep up with son #2’s reporting at the Idaho Mountain Express? Now that’s some Christmas cheer!