Even through my sadness of my grandmother dying, my family and friends made my Christmas a special and well-loved one. I started out Christmas morning baking vegan sticky buns for the first time, thanks to this recipe. I remember my dad’s mom would make sticky buns for us fairly often when we visited her and I wanted to make some this year. It’s another one of my “finally’s” that I’ve done! They’re pretty easy to make, although I’m always nervous when a recipe uses yeast, and I would bake them again. I put in a bit too much filling and too much better so my second batch, whenever that happens, will be better. I’m thinking about making this a tradition for myself – baking sticky buns for Christmas (or at least around Christmas time).
Elisabeth and I opened a couple of presents and then we went on a walk at James Bible Park because holy crap, the temperature was warm and the sun was out. We don’t get a lot of white Christmases in Denver, at least not ones where it’s snowing heavily on Christmas day, but I have to say that I didn’t mind that in the slightest this year. Going on a walk was good for me as I continued to grieve my grandmother, getting exercise and being outside lifts the mood and it did just that.
We watched Home Alone, ate a lot of food, and then Shari came over in the evening. We opened the rest of our presents and watched Arsenic and Lace, an old movie from Elisabeth’s childhood. Shari gave me one of the best presents ever. She gave me a Sherlock hat, pipe, and magnifying glass and a clue to my very own mystery. The clue was in the form of a haiku too! I discovered that she had gotten me a red plate (the one I had broke a couple months ago). I felt so touched. A red plate is special to my family and it just meant a lot more getting it this year – the year of 2020. After unwrapping the red plate I discovered a second clue to my final present! It was a word search and I found five words before figuring out what Shari got me – she wrote me a meditative story and recorded it! The whole thing was absolutely perfect. ❤
Yesterday we relaxed at home for Christmas part 2. We watched the new Wonder Woman movie, made chocolate chip muffins, went on a walk at the park, and played Wonder Woman, a board game Shari got for Christmas. Then, Shari and I drove to the outrageously decorated Christmas houses I had seen last week. I had to show her. We took the time to walk around and check out all the giant Christmas characters. There were pigs, dogs, snowmen, reindeer, and of course the classic Star Wars characters and dinosaurs. Things moved, things sang, and things blinked. There were so many lights. I am thrilled that I got to share this with Shari and I so enjoyed wandering around with her. I just googled the house and found it’s called the Kloewer House (from the people who live there) and it’s on this list that Mile High on the Cheap put together. I want to remember this site for next year, I’d definitely go visit some more of these houses.
After checking out the Kloewer house and the house across the street, we drove around a couple of expensive neighborhoods looking at the giant houses and their Christmas lights. Rich people do a great job putting up some beautiful lights, I have to say. Shari and I had a lot of fun assessing what we liked and what we would do differently if we had multi million dollar homes to decorate. It was so incredibly enjoyable and spending that time with Shari filled me with such happiness.
So this Christmas, while not I would have expected if you had asked me earlier in 2020, was overall a good one. I video chatted with my family, messaged other family and friends, and actually relaxed a tiny bit. I hope everyone’s Christmas was as good if not better than my own. Let’s end 2020 in the best possible way we can!
Just Lauren 