Our corner of the world has exploded with COVID cases since I last checked in. We have surged to 573 total cases since testing began. We are still at 2 deaths in this county. Our county has 153 active cases at the present time.

One of the deaths in a nearby county hit home. My oldest daughter’s best friend lost her grandmother, who she lived with for a time growing up.

My grand-daughter’s school announced they are going to remote learning following Christmas break, since they are more worried about people traveling and not being honest about it. Right now, the intention is a 2-week period. There hasn’t been a case in the school, yet, but I guess they are playing it safe.

I feel fine after going to Disney World for a week with friends. My spouse, son and I have plans to go back for my birthday. It’s a 2-day drive down there, but I’d rather do that than fly. We have a timeshare so we don’t have to rely on restaurants outside of the parks and we’re planning on freezing food and bringing it with us so we can avoid supermarkets as much as possible. I felt safer in the Disney “bubble” than just about anywhere else. Everyone is masked there all the time except when they are eating or drinking, no exceptions. When I sat around the table with friends, I knew I was with other people who didn’t go anywhere without a mask, either, so I felt pretty safe. Nothing is 100%, but both my spouse and my son really want a vacation of some kind, and this is the time of year they can take it. We’re getting away the safest way possible at this time.

Today was Christmas cookie day here. When I was younger, I was really into baking. I used to start after Thanksgiving and my mother would store all the different cookies I made and then the week before Christmas she’d make packages of cookies to give to our friends and neighbors. I made a wide variety of cookies – shortbread, sugar cookies, gingerbread cookies, traditional German cookies, thumbprint cookies, and more.

Once I got married and had my own family, that amount of baking wasn’t possible. I was just too busy being “super mom” taking care of everything that needed to be done at Christmas. The last few years were just too sad for me and I didn’t much feel like celebrating. I did what I did for those around me, but I wasn’t motivated at all.

Today, I felt a little more motivated. We made some of the Pilsbury cookies I bought at the store. I figured we’d do some Hershey Kiss cookies since they’re pretty easy as well, and we made dough that’s going to chill overnight so we can make sugar cookies and decorate them tomorrow. I actually had a lot of fun making them with my grand-daughter. We laughed and were silly and I enjoyed it for the first time in years.

I printed out a few more recipes of cookies I used to make and we’ll see how motivated I get over the next week or so. There were recipes that I vaguely remembered from all those years ago that I found online and a few others that looked interesting as well. It’s a nice thing to happen this year that’s been a hard year for me for many reasons. I was kind of surprised by how good it felt, with the virus hanging over everything this holiday season.

The ski areas are trying to open. Some have, and others are still struggling. The next week should be cold enough for them to make a lot of snow. Last week’s storm was hit or miss depending on where you were. We had no snow on the ground here, but a few miles away there were 8 inches on the ground. Right now it’s raining out. The higher elevations might be seeing some snow. Next week the high is going to be down in the 20’s, so that will help them a lot. I’m fine with it being a mild winter, though.