When the party's over . . .
I mean, it's not, really. We're only four days into Christmastide, with more than a week left to go until Epiphany and the definitive turn into the new calendar year. But this morning all our festive household got up early and left, and it seems like the end of something.
Or it would seem that way, except that two of them are actually coming back. Somewhere around Spartanburg, about an hour and a half after leaving here, at a big curve in the interstate, the two cars caravaning together happened on a pickup and trailer (driven by a man with no driver's license or insurance, as it happens) stopped dead in the middle of the road. The Texashusband, driving the first car, managed to swerve and miss the stalled truck. But the Viking, following him, didn't swerve in time. Fortunately he did slow way down, and he didn't hit the trailer squarely with the entire front end of Tess the Chevy (age 21) --- but he did hit it.
So Tess the Chevy is fairly smashed on one side of her front end. Fortunately the three passengers are unscathed. The other car was able to take on one more rider --- crammed in, makes me claustrophobic to think about --- but the Viking and the Artgirl are returning here with their father and the tow truck and the remains of their car, which we hope can be resurrected on a salvage title and a few more miles squeezed out of her before she sleeps the sleep of the junkyard. Not sure what's going to happen from here. Possibly they'll just fly back to Dallas and be carless for a while.
A bummer, but man. It could have been so much worse. When they all drove off in the dark and rain this morning, I did feel a frisson of worry. And while I'm sorry that something did in fact happen, I'm so grateful that it wasn't more serious than it was. I hope and pray we don't outright have to replace this worthless 21-year-old car, which does in fact run well, or did until today. Again I find myself missing and mourning the loss of our longtime mechanic, who had sold us this car. He died of Covid in 2022, and although we have found another decent, honest mechanic to work on our cars, nothing can quite replace him in our lives, as events like these tend to highlight.
So . . . that's been today's adventure. I'm still waiting for the three of them --- husband, Viking, Artgirl --- to get back here. I've done some changing of bed sheets and restoration of order, after a week of ten people in the house. It was great, but it was also chaotic, and as sad as I was to tell them all goodbye this morning, it's nice to have a little breather.
Christmas itself was lovely. We went to Mass at the Abbey on Christmas Eve, and the husband, Artgirl, and I went to the monastery refectory afterwards for a little late-night holly-golly before going home to sleep for a few hours. On Christmas morning, the biggest hit in the Secret-Santa-Stocking category was temporary tattoos, with which the younger generation covered themselves after breakfast. At Christmas dinner, all of them looked like a rowdy weekend on shore leave. I received a wonderful Land's End navy-blue down parka from my mother, as well as various other goodies, including three Sigrid Undset books I hadn't read: Ida Elisabeth, Catherine of Siena, and her Sagas of the Saints. I've already finished Ida Elisabeth and am about to crack Catherine of Siena. I gave the husband a new Wool&Prince button-down shirt (blue Oxford) and some canvas prints of photos from Norway last summer. We had Christmas crackers at dinner, always a hit. These had really nice little metal prizes in them: I got a whistle, and the Fire Son got a pair of cufflinks.
On Boxing Day/the Feast of St. Stephen, my mother and brother departed, and the Texashusband made us steaks for dinner. Yesterday everyone lounged around, washed clothes, and made ready to depart --- we had a big Festival of Leftovers for dinner, though I do still have both ham and meatballs left in some abundance.
I am pretty tired after all this, but it was a good time. Now the rest of Christmas stretches before us rather emptily, but that's not such a bad thing, really. It can look a little depressing --- I look forward to having everyone here, and then there's all this work to keep things going, and then they're off again, leaving the house too quiet and the energy all deflated. But then . . . I'm not sure I could sustain the fever pitch for the whole twelve days. Even with other people cooking and pitching it, which they did with great good will, it all gets a little overwhelming. But again, it was good. And so is this.
On the wardrobe front, I didn't take photos of every outfit I wore. On Christmas Day, for example, I wore leggings and a button shirt for most of the day, before changing into a dress, cardigan, and boots that I forgot to photograph (Cinnamon Rose Leila, green Connemara cardigan, Sand Dollar Snag tights, Keens boots). But here are some highlights, anyway:
During the day on Christmas Eve I wore my secondhand purple NPL Smock dress over my thrifted lavender merino sweater, with Red Velvet tights and Tari boots --- too busy that day to take a photo, though.
For Christmas Eve Mass:
*Secondhand Not Perfect Linen Smock dress (M) in Emerald Green, I think, bought November 2024, last worn December 5. Total wears this year to date: 4
*Secondhand Pure cashmere cardigan, bought spring 2024, last worn November 21, it looks like?
*Snag super-opaque tights in Blood Red (I think). First wear.
*Secondhand Birkenstock Melrose boots, bought summer 2023, second season of wear.
No outfit pics from Christmas Day, but again, I wore my Cinnamon Rose Leila (which I hadn't worn all Advent) with the Connemara cardigan shown below, tights, and my Keens tall boots.
Boxing Day/Feast of St. Stephen:
A pretty schlumpy outfit I don't think I'd go out of my way to repeat, but I was warm and cozy all day.
*Secondhand Wool& Sierra dress (S) in Washed Navy, bought November 2024, last worn December 19. Total wears this year to date: 5
*Secondhand Connemara wool cardigan, bought October 2024, last worn Christmas Day.
*Secondhand Allbirds tencel-merino leggings, bought January 2024, in their second winter of wear (though really just about to conclude their first year).
*Secondhand Xero Mesa trail runners, bought June 2024. I was tired of boots, and these are always good for walking and knocking around.
Feast of St. John the Evangelist:
*Wool& Fiona dress (M) in Teal, bought November 2022, last worn December 4. Total wears this year to date: 23
*Secondhand Pure cashmere cardigan, worn Christmas Eve (it is delightfully light, soft, and warm).
*Very old wool scarf owned by my grandmother, dyed indigo blue by me.
*Snag cashmere footless tights, bought this past summer, first season of wear.
*(not seen) Farm to Feet gray merino socks, a Christmas gift last year
*Xero Tari boots, in their third season of regular wear
Wearing today, on the Feast of the Holy Innocents:
*Wool& Willow dress (M/Long) in Ocean Teal, bought October 2023, last worn December 21. Total wears this year to date: 23
*Secondhand Pure cashmere cardigan, last worn yesterday
*Snag merino tights, originally Sand Dollar, redyed Jacquard Sapphire by me last year. In their third season of wear.
*Xero Tari boots, again also in their third season of wear.
Clean hair --- with ten adults in the house, for the last several days I have just been catching sponge baths and putting my hair up, waiting for no line for the bathroom and a chance of sustained hot water. When they all left this morning, I went back to bed for a while, then (once the husband had gone off to rescue the wrecked ones) luxuriated in a bath for a while. It is a good feeling, I have to say.
And I'm enjoying these teal-on-teal outfits a lot. I wasn't that sick of purple, especially as Advent lasted only 3 weeks and 2 days, but it's nice to have a change all the same. I was happy, overall, with my flexible purple capsule for the season, and had some definite favorite outfits, including these:
Dresses I purpose-bought for the purple seasons really came into their own. I love them all. And wow, am I glad I went thrifting with the Texasgirl in Dallas and bought that Banana Republic merino sweater, because it made so many outfits in this season. I also really like my secondhand Sierra as a pinafore over that sweater. I will obviously continue wearing all these clothes that I love, but it is nice for a while not to feel I have to put on purple. Lent is late this year, but it'll come round soon enough and last twice as long.
I think my least-favorite outfits involved leggings with walking/hiking shoes rather than boots --- but these were comfortable and weather-appropriate, and it is what it is. I think I get better every year at winterizing my wardrobe, so that I can wear the same dresses all year round. That said, there are dresses that definitely don't winterize as well. As much as I love my Wool& Brooklyn dresses, I find I really prefer them in the summer with just a pair of sandals, to layered up in the winter. I don't hate them, but I find them harder to style with warm layers in a way that gives me an outcome that I like. But that's okay. I will continue to wear them year-round, but just acknowledge to myself that I prefer them as summer dresses.
Meanwhile, I've been really happy to have that secondhand Sierra, whose coziness has been so welcome in this wet, cold weather we're currently having. I do also look forward to wearing that dress with just a pair of sandals in the summer (and my bare aged arms, about which I refuse to be self-conscious).
But it's such a good winter warmer, and I find myself reaching for it quite regularly. In Advent we still had some warm days, but now we're into the winter for real: not that cold, but not warm, either. Lots of rain, possibly some periods of real freezing temperatures, and then the chanciness of spring, when you want it to be warm but it really isn't. I'm glad to be prepared with a closet of flexible wool and linen layers, including tights. I'm glad I have boots for pretty much any outdoor condition. Whatever the weather wants to do, I'm ready.
The wrecked ones have let me know that they're STILL trying to get the car towed. Poor things. This wreck happened around 8 this morning, and it's 2:45 in the afternoon now. I had thought they must be on their way home, but NO.
UPDATE:
They got home around 6:30. Another dinner of leftovers --- I think we have well and truly vanquished the ham (though the bone is in the freezer to make bean soup with sometime soon). I've run, dried, folded, and put away a lot of laundry. The house wasn't really too out of order, but it's nice to have things clean, in their proper places, and ready to roll when I need them.
A short walk with Dora in the rain after dinner, and then I started reading Sigrid Undset's Catherine of Siena. I have to confess . . . I don't find Catherine the most congenial of saints, but Undset's biography is good and beautifully readable.
And so to bed.