December, 2020.
Dec. 1 - In spite of an exhausting shopping spree, Angela and Michelle came over to Chapel Hill to tea. I was so glad they were able to see my home, we chattered away sharing family memories, it was a lovely afternoon. Hopefully Angela will have another visit next year, it's a long way from Hong Kong, she has settled in to Hong Kong and enjoying the lifestyle. but now she has a new granddaughter as well her 3 daughters, and lots of extended family all over the US.
Angela gave me some lovely Christmas gifts we don't see in the US.
Dec. 5 - So much excitement playing quartets in a garage with my Durham Symphony friends! It was a beautiful afternoon, a little too windy to have the doors open, but the sun had warmed up the interior and it was very comfortable. Nothing like Mozart, Haydn and Christmas music!
Dec. 12 - More quartet playing - this time Schubert op.29. A lovely day to play in the patio overlooking the green of the nearby golf course south of Chapel Hill.
After playing, a rush to the Carolina Inn in Chapel Hill to meet Jennifer, Kate and James for our annual Christmas Afternoon Tea get-together.
Dec. 13 - Dan, Elisa and Zoe arrived for the holidays! So thrilled they were able to come down. We are in our little bubble, but can go to the local shops. The weather has been very sunny with some freezing mornings, but mostly good for getting around and our mostly daily walks.
Dec. 15 - Great excitement of the Covid Cello Project #11 release. "Mr. Blue Skies" from the Electric Light Orchestra. It was fun to play a pop song! I'm in the middle somewhere with a blue shirt. 288 cellist from many countries. Here is the link www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-8ol45TBt8
Dec. 17 - Another Christmas annual - the cousins each buy their ornament to add to their trees when they come to my house. Each one has their tree - although, this year I realised they are so grown up, their baby trees are way too short for all the ornaments.
Dec. 19. Another music release! This time it was Dan in the spot light with his buddies of the Maplewood Glee Club in New Jersey. Here is their link of the Christmas video done on Zoom. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQfbBNlKexnDRdHNbM1JNIw Such fun!
Dec. 20. Today for our walking pastime, we chose a favorite, Hillsborough, a lovely small town with British colonial era buildings from the 18th and 19th centuries. Ayr Mount is a must-visit, being a Federal-era house built in 1815 for William Kirkland, who named it in honor of his birthplace, Ayr, Scotland. The grounds are open every day, free for visitors, with several paths from the top of the hill where the house is located, going down to the Eno River below. There are picnic tables near the house with lovely vistas. A great place to have a quick lunch during a busy day, but since we had not packed a picnic, we went down to the town and bought some sandwiches to eat by the river. Continuing on to get through our Christmas dinner list, we had been trying to find mincemeat for mince pies. What with all the problems of the pandemic, items from Europe were very slow or non-existent getting over to the US, but amazingly, Dan found a Walmart that had bottles of mincemeat, AND it was only 10 minutes away from my house! Fortunately, earlier when shopping, we had found another store that had 3 British Christmas puddings and I grabbed one!
Christmas Eve - The cousins and family get together for afternoon tea, presents and fun.
Dec. 25. Christmas morning excitement, so many fun and useful presents for us all, including the cats who got cozy beds. My year-old Tiger cat had a great time with a feather bird toy, catnip, and probably some other bits and pieces, but unfortunately something made him throw up fairly consistently during the day and he became very unhappy.
Dec. 27. By Sunday, he was very sad - crying and meowing constantly. so we took him to the emergency vet where he had an X-ray etc. While Tiger was at the vet, Dan and I walked along part of the 22 miles of the American Tobacco Trail which goes south/north through the Research Triangle region, encompassing Durham and Raleigh. Originally, it was the train line built for the American Tobacco Company in the 70s, but became unused until it was taken over by Durham City-County Planning department. The rails-to-trails was completed in 2014, and it has been a great asset for families, joggers, walkers and bikers. Good news from the vet as we were walking, fortunately nothing showed up on Tiger's innards X-ray. After some anti-nausea medication and subcutaneous fluids, we brought him home, returning to the vet by Dec. 30 if he had any problems.
Dec. 28 and 29, we just sat around to keep him company - he was a very sad cat, but not in pain. He slept a lot and we were able to take our daily walk. 10,000 plus steps is showing up quite often on my daily calender! I spent practicing as much as I could for the Covid Cello Project #12 performance of Corelli's Christmas Concerto
Dec. 30. A sigh of relief that Tiger was definitely on the the mend of what caused his insides and I was able to practice on my 1740 seven-eighths cello that I have had for nearly 60 years! It was appropriate to perform baroque music on a baroque cello, especially the Christmas Concerto! This is my third performance. Tony Rogers is the instigate of this project. He spends an amazing amount of time and work setting up 300 cellists from all over the world for each performance. It's quite an endeavor to get all the technical requirements in place, but thanks to Dan, who has experienced it with his Glee Club virtual performances, set it all up for me. I was too exhausted to make the video in the evening, but I still had one day to send it off, so we did it on one take on the morning of Dec. 31. Whew! The Corelli video will come out on YouTube sometime in January.
Here is a photo background for the video!
Dec. 31 - A thankful way to end this difficult year - being able to be with family, having a happy cat, and sending out the Corelli video in time!
Blessing of health to you all for the coming year.
Jane
What a rich and fun-filled month, Jane. Lovely to see all your family traditions and gatherings. Sending much love for this new year.
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