Here's hoping you all have a wonderful holiday of your choice. This year sure feels different...
We celebrate Christmas - our tree is up. We are listening to holiday music, switching back and forth from WNCW to WXPN. My wife and my emotions are doing a total yin/yang. We are feeling....a bit flat.
Starting in late September with Helene (the pall of which still hangs over a large area of western NC - and I assume, SC, TN and VA). Then came the shock of the election results. Boom - and BOOM.
We lost our dear dog Koda a few weeks ago - it was sudden, and he was so, so loved (my blog of his life, with lots of pictures, is here - https://www.craiglehoullier.com/blog1/2024/12/14/remembering-koda-he-left-us-way-too-soon ). That was a sonic BOOM for our emotions.
Add to that the weirdness of Christmas as one gets older, as family members die or grow distant.
BUT - any day now, our younger daughter will give birth to Eli - our first grandson. My wife and I are 67 and 68, and neither of our girls expressed much of an interest in having children. But....surprise! Her and her boyfriend - and our - lives are about to change. We are on edge - she is 39, she is HUGE (and so so so ready), but all seems well. So we wait. Her due date is Dec 25, but at this point she is to head in to be induced Dec 26 so Eli should enter the world on Dec 27 (at least that is the plan).
Needless to say, our brains are scrambled with all of this stuff. The good thing - all of what is happening means I've really not given the orange asshole any brainspace. We have other things to process. We don't watch any news at all (just my daily peeks at DU cause me enough angst).
Anyway - it is a highly emotionally charged time for most people, it seems. I hope you all navigate it with as much joy as you can. 
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Sounds like a wonderful present this year!
Have a special holiday season, and enjoy the family expansion.
So sorry about Koda, though. He was quite a cute pup. 
Merry Christmas!
Checking in from eastern TN. We weathered Helene just fine, but so many around us did not. It's not a very far drive, just minutes actually, to see the destruction.
2024 has been hell. A friend died early in the year and then his wife broke her ankle and couldn't get around for weeks. We had to put down 2 of our old cats (one of them the day before Helene), my friend had to put down a dog, a goat, and a horse. Another friend's dog needs some rather serious and expensive surgery. Then Helene. I had a health scare that lasted most of the summer and into the fall. And the final blow, the election. (I still can't believe it.)
My fear is that in just a few weeks we'll see this hell as "the good old days."
So we're celebrating the holidays quietly. The tree is decorated and we bought some gifts. We listen to music and watch all the holiday movies. I tried to "fake it till you make it," but I'll admit it's not working very well. Our daughter and her gang are coming over for supper today. My husband and I will spend tomorrow, probably watching movies and doing what we can to appreciate what we have, including each other. We're trying the best we can to find joy with our remaining cats and horse who still give us unconditional love and make us smile.
I'm with you on not giving TFG any brain space. I have severely cut back on my DU reading and posting, although I do peek daily as well. My gift to myself is to not even look at any pics or videos of that lowlife shithead or any of his sycophants. It helps a little.
Wishing you a happy holiday season as well. Enjoy little Eli. What a blessing for you! Babies can help you forget everything else, at least for a little while. 
sorry, I could not help myself 
