Merry Christmas

Here I am sitting at home now and just wondering what all I’m going to do today on Christmas Day. It’s just my husband and I. We went to breakfast. I actually called first to be sure and Ihop was open. Now we may go out for a walk. It’s cloudy but 70 and pretty mild for this time of year.

When we got back from Ihop one thing I needed to do was to put in some time toward my required education to keep my RN license active. Every 2 years I have to have 30 hours of continuing education. In the past I remember waiting until the last minute and then cramming between Christmas and New Years to get those hours in. I started earlier this year and didn’t have to cram. I earned another 2 credit hours today so now only have 10 more to go.

With my own business I work a lot and everyday except Sunday! It’s ok because it doesn’t feel really like work! But on holidays, when I have this enormous gap of “me” time and no committed activities, I’m kind of bored. Anyone else feel that way? Our families are all out of town. I imagine one year a huge reunion like I remember with huge family gatherings in Chicago when I was a kid. My family would fly in from Germany or wherever my Dad was stationed at the time to see everyone. The best part was the food and connecting with relatives some of which I only knew from pictures! I miss those days.

Now, as an adult, when I was working in the hospital as an RN it was hard to plan holidays because someone had to work them and you didn’t always know until closer to the time if it would be you. If I did have to work on Christmas, Ralf and I would celebrate on Christmas Eve or on the 26th. I remember less stress in the hospital as it was usually a lighter work load plus you got paid more. I comforted others and everyone was appreciative, but I always longed to be home with my own family. Twelve hour shifts sometimes ran longer and there just wasn’t much time left over to do anything on the day.

With my own business, the days are still long. I’m working 12 hour days or longer. I guess that’s a habit 🙂 I’m still helping people, but it doesn’t feel like clocking in to the hospital type of work. It’s creative and never life or death and maybe that’s why it feels like fun. It’s our busiest time of year so still not super realistic to plan too much between Halloween and Christmas other than create wonderful quilts most of which are gifts.

On this Christmas, I’m not missing the hospital. I’m very grateful to customers for continued support. I’m also grateful to staff, a close handful who have been with me since the beginning. That just means that we have expertise acquired over the year from refining and perfecting our methods. It’s been a process but everyone has contributed and I’m pretty proud of the results we continue to achieve.

From the pictures, the Santa sweater I got at an estate sale and it’s my favorite to wear this time of the year. Duk Sun is Korean and brought by this small gift. It’s to scrub things. I think it’s too pretty to use for that. Working with crafty people means you may just get original crafty homemade gifts !

Back behind me on the wall is a completed t-shirt quilt top that’s ready for quilting. It will be an interesting one. Lots of shirts collected by an executive that works in the beverage industry.

Let me tell you about my Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses, too. These I love because I can listen to music through them. I can also take pics or videos with them. You can also translate with them. Mine are prescription so it’s cool there’s all this functionality in something I use everyday anyway. If interested, I’d encourage you to check out some of the social groups for pros and cons. As a nurse, I think a huge pro is that they are also helping increase accessibility for those that are blind and hearing impaired. Be My Eyes makes it easy to be a helper.

I’m glad it’s Christmas because that means it’s the end of a recurring dream I get every single year around this time. In my dream we’re missing the items to be made from Peachtree Road Race T-shirts. I’m in a panic because the customer is expecting the quilt to be finished by Christmas. I can’t find the shirts. Did we really have them? Did I really create an order? How far along was it? Had we sewn it yet? Did I miss looking somewhere? I’ve had this dream several nights this month and am always relieved when I wake up because then it ends and I know it was only a dream. We’re working on other Peachtree quilts, but have everything needed and no mystery surrounding their whereabouts. Whew! My husband, Ralf, says it’s stress. Probably. Losing items would for an entire quilt would be a real nightmare.

So Ralf is hinting it’s time to go for a walk. Thanks for reading and I think I’ll take him up on that! All the best for you a wonderful Christmas, holiday season and 2026.