As many of you know, in September my daughter Shannon, her husband Mike, their two dogs—Holly and Somara—and their cat Penny moved in with us. One phase of their life had ended, and they were starting a new phase with different jobs. Staying with us allowed them to take their time to find a place that was exactly right for them as well as for the dogs and cat.
This Shannon and Mike did, with a lovely new apartment overlooking the water. In late December, dogs, kit, and kids left, leaving the three of us—Clif, our daughter Dee, and me. The house is now very quiet. While I miss the hubbub, it feels great to return to my old schedule, which not only includes blogging but also working on my upcoming book, Darcy Dansereau, a slice-of-life fantasy set in Maine in the 1970s.
Along with Christmas, December included a challenge courtesy of Mother Nature—a rain and wind storm with gusts up to 70 miles per hour. This storm whipped through central Maine with the expected results—widespread power outages in the days leading to Christmas. We were without power for four days, and it was even longer for some people in central Maine.
The storm also brought about an unexpected result—flooding for communities by a river. While flooding is common in the spring, it is pretty much unheard of in December. As I am fond of saying, in these times of climate change, weird is the new normal. These floods were as bad as I’ve ever seen them, but as we don’t live near a river, we stayed dry.
Because we have a wood furnace, we were warm and cozy during the power outage. In addition, we have a camp stove, and in town there is a business with an outside spigot where we could get water. So we were all right during our time without power.
During the power outage, we were still taking care of the dogs and cat while Mike and Shannon were getting settled in their new apartment. Here is the expression on Holly’s face as the storm blew and raged outside.
Because the light was low, the focus isn’t the best. Still, I think it captures her mood, which was pretty much the same as ours: none of us liked the storm one bit.
But through it all we did have a light to shine with an old lamp that belonged to Clif’s parents.
The Thursday before Christmas, early in the morning, the lights came on, and we all rejoiced.
The dogs and the cat settled back into their comfortable routines.
My brother, sister-in-law, and nephew came over to celebrate Christmas Eve with us, and what a jolly time we had. Unfortunately, no pictures were taken of the event.
I did, however, take pictures of Christmas morning, and our first ever Crustmas feast. The idea for Crustmas came from a delightful podcast called Strong Sense of Place: The Library of Lost Time. The hosts, Dave and Mel, explained how they celebrate the holiday with Crustmas, which revolves around their love of toast. (I, too, love toast, and as soon as I heard their idea, I was all in.) They buy a number of nice loaves of bread and provide a bunch of yummy toppings: Nutella, jam, cream cheese, butter. They also have a charcuterie board, which we did not do this year but might next year. However, the genius idea is to bring the toaster right to the table so that there is no running back and forth to the kitchen to make toast. At the table, out pops the toast, hot and fresh for eager eaters.
Here is the table on Christmas morning all set up for Crustmas.
Crustmas was a smashing success, and we will do this again next Christmas. However, as Dave and Mel reminded listeners, there is no need to confine Crustmas to Christmas. The glories of toast can be celebrated all through the year, and that’s exactly what we plan to do.
A very happy New Year to all my wonderful blogging friends. I will be posting once a week, on Wednesday, unless something special comes up that deserves my attention.
Until next Wednesday.