Celebrating the Holidays with RA!

[Guest guest]

Hi Everyone!

I don't know about everyone else but RA has definitely had a strong

impact on my holidays this year. Thanksgiving I attempted to do what

I'd always done in years past. Doing the huge family dinner myself

with days of prep beforehand, cooking most of the day before, then

Thanksgiving Day the whole spread for ten people, then after clean-up

put up my Christmas tree and inside decorations. Big mistake! I was down

for three days afterward.

For the first time ever, I faced Christmas with dread rather than

excitement. For the first time ever, I had to accept that going out in

the cold and doing Christmas shopping (something I always enjoyed) was

out of the question this year. Not to mention that my forced early

retirement and disability benefits left little money for buying gifts.

I am fortunate that my children are adults and out on their own, and

there are no grandchildren to disappoint. However, I had to find a way

to adapt to my new circumstances, without sacrificing my love for the

holidays in the process.

My first concession, my huge Christmas morning breakfast for everyone. I

found that I was dreading the prospect of a repeat of Thanksgiving. I

decided that I wasn't going to do it this year. Instead, I'm

going to bake a ham for sandwiches and a few easy snacks so the children

can stop in during the day, whenever it is convenient for each of them.

That way instead of spending all my time on cooking and clean-up, I can

spend some quality one-on-one time with each of my children. No fuss, no

mess. I'm actually looking forward to that. Early on Christmas Eve,

my children are picking me up to go visit my mother and stepfather. Then

that evening, my daughter's significant other is cooking dinner for

me and his mother. Just the four of us for a quiet, relaxing evening

– instead of spending my evening preparing for the Christmas

breakfast we're not having. I'm really looking forward to that

one.

Gift giving: I've spoken to my children and asked them what they

miss most no longer being at home and the response was unanimous,

mom's home cooking – the things they haven't been able to

replicate themselves. Which was saying a lot because my son is an

executive chef at a country club in the next county. He's a chef,

but not a baker, who misses my cookies. My daughter who works odd,

unpredictable hours mentioned my homemade vegetable soup, and chili. So,

I got to work making up cookie recipes, rolling them into logs and

putting them in the freezer. I also made huge stock pots of vegetable

soup and chili, which I put in single serving size bags, sealed with my

trusty sealer, and also put in the freezer. So, instead of giving my

children store bought gifts they may or may not like or use, they are

getting a bit of home, gift bag filled with frozen logs of cookie dough

(eight kinds of cookies) they can slice and bake, as many as the want,

when ever they want, hot from their oven, or soup they can pop in the

microwave or a pan of boiling water.

The single gentleman who lives across the street has a snow blower and

does my walk and driveway will also get some soup and a log of cookie

dough. The same for my mom and stepfather, and a couple of elderly

neighbors who also live alone, etc. And, I have the added benefit of

having plenty left in my freezer for myself when I don't feel like

cooking. You can't get more nutritious than a bowl of homemade

vegetable soup on a cold winter day.

By adapting to my current circumstances, doing things that I can do from

home and pacing myself, I find that I am once again looking forward to

Christmas this year.

As you all know I'm also a writer, much slower, but still writing. I

posted my all time favorite, fast, cheap, and easy cookie recipe on my

blog for my readers and I'd also like to share it with you. Most of

the cookie recipes that I made this year are all variations on this one

simple cake mix cookie recipe. I added peanut butter to a yellow cake

mix, a box of apple cinnamon oatmeal to the yellow cake mix, nuts to a

spice cake mix, etc. The options are endless. So for those of you who

want to check it out, here is the link: http://kaywilde.blogspot.com/

<http://kaywilde.blogspot.com/>

I still have a bit of time to come up with other homemade goodies to

give as gifts so if any of you have other suggestions you'd like to

share, I'd love to hear them.

So how has RA affected your holidays? What have you done to adapt to

your new normal?

Happy Holidays Everyone!

Kay