Like everything else this holiday season, New Year’s Eve & Day were a little off, but otherwise fine. Usually, we spend the afternoon and evening of the last day of the year with our friend Sarah running between cinemas for a movie marathon and squeezing in a pizza dinner downtown.

Time with friends, dinners out, and movie theaters all being disallowed this year, we stayed in. We ate Christmas Eve leftovers (crepes and the last of the baked brie), watched a couple films (Die Hard and The Last Dragonslayer), and counted down the New Year by toasting with bubbly drinks and special French desserts I picked up on my way back from the eye doctor earlier in the day.

The traditional way to spend the first day of the year normally involves watching the Rose Parade and getting outside (Rudi usually rides with friends) before whipping up a traditional Southern New Year’s Day supper of greens, black-eyed peas, and cornbread.

The parade was canceled, so I slept in, but we did eat the rest of the Christmas morning cinnamon rolls once I got up. It was raining heavily all day, so neither of us felt especially motivated to get outside, and I never got out of my pajamas. And then, although I’d bought the ingredients for the usual supper, I forgot about it until we’d decided on something else and had it reheating in the microwave. We decided it would be no less lucky to have it this weekend, instead.

So, there we have it. I’m glad to see the year switch over, but apparently not so much that I was willing to make a fuss over it. A low-key greeting seemed best; I’d hate for 2021 to think it needed to outdo last year in terms of memorability.

Happy New Year! May 2021 bring a return of the things we miss the most.

Here are three beautiful things that I was lucky enough not miss this past week:

1. A most breathtaking sunset, full of oranges and purples.

2. Eating lunch in the park on a warm afternoon with a book, a thermos of tea, and an ever-diminishing pile of correspondence.

3. My brother texts to say he and his partner been diagnosed with COVID-19, but were already out of quarantine and on the mend.

How about you? What’s was beautiful in your world as you rounded out 2020?

My dear acquaintances, I wish you laughter and music in 2021. I wish you time in the company of friends and loved ones. And I wish you confidence that the coming year will be better than the departing one.

Thank you for your companionship on our journey around the sun. You helped make a challenging year easier and I’m grateful for your company.

The year is rapidly running out of hours, which is great, to be honest. Very few people won’t be thrilled to see 2020 disappearing in their rearview mirror later this week.

However, there are still a few things that I want to take care of before I close out the year:

• Make some year-end donations. I’m lucky enough to be able to make charitable donations throughout the year, but I know a lot of nonprofits are really hurting this year. I want to do what I can, particularly for my local aid organizations directly helping those stressed by the pandemic (particularly since our government apparently remains unconcerned about everyone’s welfare).
• Spend down my transit and flex spending accounts. Again, I was lucky in that my h.r. person was able to get us the ability to stop putting money into our transit accounts we stopped commuting, but because I did so much work travel at the start of the year, I built up a little buffer I need to distribute.
• Write the last handful of holiday letters. We sent out most of our holiday cards on Christmas day, but I saved a few that I wanted to write actual letters in. I did a few yesterday and should write the last three tomorrow.
• Clean the kitchen and bathroom floors. Let’s be honest: While starting the year with a neat apartment would be great, it’s just not going to happen. But I absolutely can (and should) wash the floors in my two smallest spaces.
• Eat lunch outside tomorrow. I’ll admit eating my midday meal al fresco has been more enjoyable on some days than others this week, but I definitely think it’s been good for me to spend time outside. My time off is going to end on a rainy note (precipitation is predicted for at least three of the next five days), so I definitely need to be outside tomorrow, regardless of the temperature.
• Bake cookies. I haven’t done it for the first week of my vacation and I’d hate to spend the last five days without homemade treats.
• Finish one more book. For the first time in years, I’m not going to average a book a week for the year. I intended to really work on getting to 52 books during my time off, but at some point it stopped being a stretch goal and just became ridiculous. However, if I can wrap up one more book, that will put me at 40 for the year.

What are you hoping to wrap up before 2020 hits the road?

Postmodern Jukebox songs are always fun, and adding Olivia Kuper Harris and Rayvon Owen on vocals for “What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?” does justice to the Frank Loesser tune.

Rudi and I are still trying to figure out how to ring in New Year’s Eve this year. Like everything else in 2020, our decade-plus-long-tradition of a movie marathon at the cinema and dinner out with friends is obviously off the table. Cases are on the rise here, as well as everywhere else, so I put a hold on our plan to watch Wonder Woman 1984 with friends sometime this week until the numbers start going down again. We can most certainly watch movies online, which would make the last night of 2020 … just like every other night. I guess what I really want — a bonfire or a physical dumpster fire to go along with the metaphoric one we’ve had this year — isn’t really possible. But I want one anyway. I wonder if the neighboring businesses would mind if I borrowed their trash facilities for the night…?

First, a confession: My #tbtbsanta box arrived a month ago. I held off on opening it, first as a reward and later as a talisman, warding off bad seasonal events.

It should be noted that I looked at the box every day. I considered opening it. And so I left it unopened — and my poor Santa probably wondering what in the world was the matter with me.

But today, today I woke up and it was sunny. I realized I’d made it through both Thanksgiving and Christmas without breaking and I felt a little more like myself than I have since early October. And I knew it was time to open my box.

My Santa, Jordan, didn’t know when she sent me the box that I was going to hold onto it like a life raft. But the box was filled with good, buoyant things that make me even gladder now that I’ve opened it.

Already, we’re off to a great start: I drink a ton of cocoa, so am super excited to have new varieties to try. I didn’t have a new ornament for this year, because I hadn’t gone anywhere to get one. And the card made me guffaw!

I love purple. I love sparkles. I love nail polish. Put them all together and we have a winner!

Okay, on to the packages! (For the record, I also have Peanuts Christmas wrapping paper….)

First up, there is a fun tiny planter shaped like a Jane Austen bust so I can bring my gardening inside for the season.

Second, there are two books I’ve been wanting to read, Ta-Nehisi Coates’ well-received The Water Dancer and Ten Blind Dates by Ashley Elston, a Christmas-themed romance.

Finally, there was a gift for Corey — a catnip-filled croissant:

Thank you, Jordan, from both Corey and me. We absolutely love our gifts!