December 2021

January 3rd, 2022. Very behind on my blog. Reason ? Had a lovely Christmas with the family from New Jersey and Chapel Hill, a lot to do with not enough time! 

December 1. A great start to the festivities - a delicious luncheon in a beautiful house which was given to the University of North Carolina. Fancy events are held there, my string quartet often played for special dinners, and the Trinity School Grandparents are invited every year. My grandchildren, Kate, 17 and a senior and James 16, a sophomore are at Trinity, and at the beginning of school in August, I was asked to substitute to teach strings for a teacher who was out on maternity leave. I enjoyed it very much and even when she returned, I am still part-time there. I enjoy bumping into Kate and James at times. 

December 2nd was a sad day, the last orchestra rehearsal for the semester.  We were not able to perform our concert on the 5th due to the virus. We start up again on January 13th (hopefully). 

December 4, So many events have been cancelled, but on a positive note, my Saturday walking group keeps going, and due to a friend, I was able to join my walking buddies in the morning. My car was still not repaired. In the afternoon Jennifer and I watched Kate's gymnastic Mock Meet. Open to families, it was a chance to see how well the students are doing before going out around the state to compete. Here is Kate on the right with her friend who is also a Senior. 

December 6, After much discussion back and forth, my car was towed to a garage south of Chapel Hill. Once that was taken care of, Ben picked me up and we went to the Colonial Inn, for a "Senior" dinner at 4pm. The inn was built in 1838, a landmark in Hillsborough. We arrived at 3pm and enjoyed a drink. As Ben says " It was 3pm in North Carolina, but in London was 8pm. Long live the Queen." I had a Fuzzy Navel, Ben a gin and tonic, and a chat in front of the fire until our table was ready. Ben was a dear friend to Judy, she was also my dearest friend from when we met as neighbors in 1974 with two 3 year-olds. Sadly she passed away in July 2020. She is missed very much and would have loved to have been there with us.                                                                                                                                                      For dinner, we had a shrimp cocktail, and Salmon en Croute with mushroom wild rice and asparagus. There was a large side of roasted fingerling potatoes that we couldn't finish, though we tried. For dessert we had caramel cake with a layer of chocolate mousse. Coffee was decaf.  All yummy! 

Music picked up in December with Sunday services in churches in Chapel Hill and Hillsborough. It was such a joy to be playing with friends again. In the afternoon on December 12, was our monthly get-together with Viols and masks. 

December 14, finally picked up my car. James kindly took me to the Auto shop that Jennifer had recommended. It was south of Chapel Hill, but worth it. After James drove it around a bit, and I did too, we were satisfied and I drove it home. 

December 17, was Trinity School's end of term service of Lessons and Carols. It was held outside on the playing fields because of the large number of students, over 500. No parents or family were allowed,  except for those who had Senior students, as it would be the last one their son/daughter would participate in.  Fortunately it was over 70 degrees.  The music department - band and strings, played  Carols that the audience could join in. Even my beginner violas and cellists joined in! 

December 18, An annual Christmas treat from Jennifer to Kate, James and me.  Christmas Afternoon Tea at the Carolina Inn. It's a chance to relax for a while and be looked after. 

After that, Kate and I went to the ballet, "Nutcracker", of course! This was a special performance, as Kate's friend Emily was dancing her last time for her dancing school. Emily is also a senior, and getting ready to choose colleges and what to do in the future. It was a very enjoyable performance, the costumes and choreography were beautifully done. 

December 21, was another annual Christmas event, the decoration of the trees at my house. Three for the grandchildren and one for me. Kate and James came for lunch and with precision, decorated their trees. There were some grumbling this year, as the trees initially were for small children and now the teenagers are feeling undermined. We'll have to get taller trees next year!

December 24, 2021. Dan, Elisa and Zoe drove from New Jersey through the night and got to Chapel Hill early Christmas Eve morning. After a few hours of snooze, it was time to have our annual Family Christmas Eve Afternoon tea. A new addition this year was my great-niece Michelle and her husband JB, who is in the military base near Fayetteville. It was so good for all of us to meet them. It was similar  when Dan arranged my 75th birthday party and my niece Mary, who is Michelle's aunt, came down from Milwaukee. We had a delicious tea - scones and cream of course, and other delicacies. Enough for me to be able to go to St. Matthew's Episcopal Church in Hillsborough, for the Christmas Eve Service with the string quartet. Unfortunately on arriving, we were told we would be on Zoom, which meant Dan, Elisa, Zoe, Michelle and JB were not able to come to the church. It was an odd feeling just having the string quartet, organ, small choir and the rector, plus all the technical personnel.  Still, it is a lovely little church to play in. The technical side had its moments - the family at home were having quite a laugh with the closed captioning, as it was automatic. They were still laughing hilariously when I arrived home, having no idea why they were giggling away! 

Over the last year, a team of four of us - Dan, Jennifer, Maggie and I have been walking with the incentive of getting medals for the number of miles we have to walk for different places. So far it has been - Hadrians Wall, 90 miles, Camino de Santiago 480 miles, Kruger National Park 256 miles, Lands End to John O'Groats 1,084 miles The Australian Great Ocean Road 149 miles, Amalfie Coast 35 miles.  Our walks wherever we are - indoors, stairs, paths etc. showing the number of steps each day on our phone app. Mine is the Health app. Jennifer gave me this beautiful medal hanger for Christmas. She and I are on the Romantic Road, Germany. 268 miles. The walks have slowed down quite a lot, as life has become more busy, but I hope to keep going!

Dec. 25th Christmas Day. With the revels of the night before, we were a little late in getting up. Zoe is at the age of understanding that one doesn't have to get up at a very early morning to hand around the presents! A delicious meal of salmon, roasted vegetables, mashed potatoes, with lots of laughs with the crackers, charades jokes. Sadly, the Christmas pudding was not to be seen in the stores, and I had not thought to make one a month earlier. We did have mince pies before DEZ left!

December 27th - DEZ went south to visit Elisa's stepmother in Wilmington, and then on to Pawley Island in South Carolina where Elisa's aunt is living. The weather was warmer than Chapel Hill, but I was happy with our 70+ degrees. They returned on the 29th, a lot of driving.                                            

December 31 - Lunch at Elmo's in Durham, where Dan and Elisa had their first date. Breakfast anytime, Wide typical American food. Ben joined us, he also enjoys Elmo's and chatting away with Dan whenever he comes to NC.     

Here's our New Year Eve supper. Delish!                                                                                                                       

 

The last of the year, a visit to the Carolina Inn with Zoe to see the Twelve Days of Christmas. 

                                                                 Five Golden Rings

                                                                  Happy New Year

                                                                      from Jane.