Reflections on 2020

Let’s face it. 2020 was not the best of years. It had a few good points, like lots of time in the spring, during lockdown, to cook and bake and work on my giant cross stitch that, after 4 years, is 1/3 done. Yes, I love ridiculously complicated projects!! Stitching is one of the things that helped me get through this year. Feeling stabby? Ok. go stab some fabric that already has holes with a blunt needle. No one gets hurt, and a gorgeous picture slowly appears!

Why did I need all the stress relief? A lot of it is the same reasons everyone faces–worry about the pandemic. In the spring, I was lucky enough to teach from home, but reading about all of the terrible things happening in the world started to sink me into a depression. There are so many ways our world is broken, which I won’t get into here. I did pretty well at going for walks through the summer months and posted pictures of my strange finds from walks on my Instagram. I cooked and baked for one.

In the fall, there was added stress with all of the political strife and worry. And I found out my job is ending with the school year. Budget cuts are hitting a lot of industries really hard right now. Colleges are among them.

As winter approached, I found it hard to cook at all. Walks disappeared. I didn’t have the energy to keep up with blogging. I started making a CV and applying for jobs, which takes a lot of time.

The holidays happened. First, it was Thanksgiving that got canceled. I was disappointed, but it’s better to keep my family safe and celebrate separately. I got myself and my kitty a turkey breast. I made cranberry sauce (I usually don’t have this with my Thanksgiving meal because I’m the only one who eats it, so I sometimes make it the next week.)

It wasn’t my first Thanksgiving alone. In 2019, I was alone for Thanksgiving as well, because I had caught whatever bug was going around campus, and I didn’t want to share that with family. I spent most of the holiday asleep. When I felt better, I made myself some proper food.

Christmas was harder. This was not my first time away from family for the holiday, but other times had been because I wanted to spend them with just my ex (who obviously wasn’t my ex at the time). We decided it was best to do the holidays with just us and then have time with each family before/after the holiday. Including one year when it was May before we got to see my family! Garrett County is known as the Snow Capital of the South according to Southern Living several years ago. Since 1977, the average amount of snow they receive is 133″ in a winter. Usually, I see family at Christmas only after a difficult plan of you can come in on this day between storms and you have to go on this day because it’s the one day it’s not snowing!

I haven’t seen my parents since Christmas 2019. They mailed me presents, and we had a Zoom opening. It’s hard to be away, but again, safety is important.

Usually, my family has turkey for Christmas. I asked Aspect what she would prefer. She asked for Mouse with Cheese. I told her that was not possible, but I promised her cheese. We settled on ham. We had cheese and crackers as an appetizer.

I’d decided I wanted to make cinnamon rolls for Christmas morning. It was more like afternoon when they were done, but they were a lovely treat anyway.

Aspect has a great holiday–she got a bird stick and chased it all over the house. We ended up watching White Christmas. Aspect helped me work on my cross stitch a little.

The one thing I do know about 2021 is that it is going to be full of changes. I’m going to try to get back to posting recipes about once a week.

I’ll be teaching Food Writing in my final semester at my school, so there might be other types of posts as well as recipes.

I wish my readers all the best in 2021.