Sophie's Story

     Well, this is it. We are now less than 24 hours away from a brand new year. Many people are very excited about this. It almost seems as if people think that at the stroke of midnight, everything is going to be good and troubles will go away.    Although I know it doesn't work that way, I'm still excited. This is my favourite holiday as many of you who have read this column know. The reason is that the beginning of a new year always feels like a clean slate to me. It's a chance to start again and to learn from the past year and to do better. I love the idea of putting the old year behind me and moving ahead into whatever is out there.    When you hear people talk about 2020, most of what you hear about is what a bad year it was. How difficult is was. All the people we lost. All the damage that has been done. All the troubles that just don't seem to have an end.    To me it wasn't that bad. Yes, there were things we couldn't do and fear and anxiety, but there

     The turkey is in the crockpot. Christmas music is on the stereo. The tree lights are on and will stay on all day. The sun is shining. It's a balmy 15 degrees outside. There is a nice layer of snow on the ground. C is live streaming Wonder Woman downstairs. I'm at the computer writing my column. Scamp has made himself comfortable on the bed. It's Christmas at our house.    There are no presents under the tree. No ribbon or wrapping paper on the floor. There is a selection of home made treats on the dining room table given to us from friends.     This is just about perfect. The only thing that would make this perfect were if my beloved Colby were sleeping next to Scamp.     I'm happy. The lack of material gifts does not bother me a bit. I'm finding as I get older, I'm more interested in experiences that in things. I care more about people than possessions.    This year I sent cards. I've posted some rather thoughtful things on Facebook. I made up cookie p

     C had a surprise for me. He was talking to his sister Elizabeth about the fudge that she and their other sister Mertis used to make. She said it was pretty simple and gave him the recipe. He was excited. This is the same recipe his mother also used to make fudge. He gave it to me.   I thought that this time of year would be a good time to try out the recipe. I had wanted to shake up my holiday treat making routine. I was getting bored with making the same cookies all the time. When I was younger and used to do the holiday baking for the family, I used to make fudge. It would be good to try making it again.    The recipe seemed a bit too good to be true. There were only a few ingredients, cocoa powder, sugar, evaporated milk, vanilla, butter and a pinch of salt. I thought that fudge making required more ingredients. The fudge I used to make required marshmallow cream and a few other things. I was told that there were two things that I needed to make sure the fudge turned out. The f

     Three days ago Washington National Cathedral tolled the Bourdon Bell. It is their largest bell, weighing in at 12 tons. It is typically tolled at funerals held at the Cathedral. On Tuesday the bell was tolled 300 times, once for every 1,000 lives lost to coronavirus. There was a video on YouTube. It showed a single candle, its flame wavering from the vibrations of the large bell. Behind the candle, slightly blurred, were cards that contained the names of people who died of the virus. The names were sent in by friends and families for remembrance during the weekly memorial service that the Cathedral holds.   I watched and listened to the video. Sometimes I sat sipping my tea. Sometimes I did some small tasks in my kitchen. It was hard to experience even second hand. Part of me wondered why I was doing this. Why was I listening to a bell toll for 30 minutes. Why not just shut it off and do something else? I felt compelled to keep listening to the steady tolling of the bell.    Part

     I have a page a day calendar called National Day. Each day has a list of things that are celebrated on that day. For instance, December 12 is Poinsettia Day. December 13 is Cocoa day.    Yesterday was Wear Your Pearls Day. I don't always celebrate each of the holidays that are listed. I have no idea how one celebrates Ding-a Ling Day. Yesterday I decided I was going to wear some pearls even though I wasn't working or doing anything special. I put on a pair  of pearl earrings that C gave me.   I like pearls. When I was younger pearls seemed so classy and grown up. Many I times I would see pictures of wealthy and prominent women wearing a strand or two of pearls. It is tradition in my family that when a girl is confirmed in the church, she gets a ring. This is her first piece of real jewelry. I picked a Black Hills gold ring with a pearl in the middle.    When I was in high school I had  pearl necklaces and a bracelet. (Not real of course.) One of  my necklaces consists of d

        A few days ago I ordered some candy. It was not just any candy. It was Aplets and Cotlets from Liberty Orchards. I had not ordered a box for many years. I was so excited about reviving this tradition of mine that I had a second box shipped to a friend of mine.    Over the years I got so busy with work that little by little, I stopped doing a lot of the things I used to do around the holidays. It got to the point that I was just doing a little baking and putting up a tree and a few decorations. Maybe I'd stick a few Christmas CDs in the stereo.   It's time to change that. I'm tired of December being something that I have to endure. This is a time for joy.     Yesterday I made a list of Christmas treats I plan to bake. I'm going to make plates of treats and bring them to our neighbors and a couple other people. One of those things is fudge. I haven't made fudge in years. My sister-in-law, Doris, gave me the recipe my mother-in-law used. I have no idea how it w

       A bit over three years ago I was dragged figuratively kicking and screaming into the smartphone era. I loved my little flip phone. It was small, compact and did just what I wanted it to do. It was becoming clear to me that I was going to have to have a smartphone as there were things I needed to do at work that just couldn't be done with my flip phone. The deciding factor was that our cell phone bill would go down if I would just embrace this new technology.     I was very reluctant. I had seen many people doing nothing but stare at their screens. They would walk down the street, eat in restaurants and attend worship services spending most of their time with their eyes firmly fixed on their screens. I had even seen teenagers riding bikes and texting. I called them phone zombies and I had no interest in becoming one.    C and I found a a refurbished phone for a very good price. We set it up and I began to use it. I realized that I liked it. I enjoyed being able to text, read

        This week I pulled out my Christmas CDs and put one disc in the CD player. I kept the rest out so I could slowly add one disc every week until my CD player has all Christmas music in it. I burned a pine scented candle. C and I made a list of people to whom we hope to send Christmas cards. We bought some ingredients so I can do holiday baking. We talked about a few people we'd like to give some treats to. I've been cheerful.     Anyone who has read this column for a few years knows that this is NOT normal behaviour for me. I have routinely aired my dislike for the month of December, the commercialization of Christmas and the wish that we could skip to New Year's many times.    Things are better this December. When you compare them to past  Decembers it's not much of a contest. Most Decembers found me working a lot, missing all the holiday fun, listening to endless cheerful holiday music and dealing with stressed out, angry customers. In 2018 I was three weeks awa