Holiday Joy

 

"And how was your Christmas vacation?" is the common refrain this time of year. It is always a time to look forward to, a time spent with friends and family and a time to relax and do some enjoyable things that are put aside too often during rest of the year.

 

My gouty foot was finally starting to feel almost normal and the early Christmas with our little family was wonderful. In retrospect, by big mistake was attending the Christmas Eve service at church. We attended the last of 4 services where there had been, to that point, about 3600 people crowded into the worship center, they and all their germs and viruses.

 

Two days later I was down with one of the worst cases of sore throat and laryngitis that I have ever had. Today my illness is still in full swing, not getting better, not getting worse.

 

The plans to walk, visit friends have New Years Eve parties, go to some movies, eat out, etc, were out the window. I have not been out of the house since Dec. 27 and I have cabin fever as well as fevers of a viral nature.

 

I picked up a few jigsaw puzzles before the holidays and I chose the easy one first. Two days later it was done. The above photo shows the painting of two little kids gardening. Very nice, not too easy, but fun.   

 

This 'Cabin in the Woods' puzzle is not so easy, in fact it made my cabin fever get worse. It is the most difficult puzzle I have ever done with one exception. I once did a competition puzzle to see how I would fare against the winning time of 2 hours and 20 minutes. It was a close up photo of three zebras drinking at a watering hole in Africa. Five days later, I gave up. It was a blow to my ego to realize I could not even complete it when someone actually finished it so very quickly. Almost every piece, except for the eyes, was black and white stripes.

 

On this puzzle, every second piece is birch bark and autumn leaves. Same thing only easier. As you can see, I start with the easy stuff.

 

I will eventually finish this puzzle. I am that way. Besides, there are no Zebras in it. Below you can see how I have had to fortify myself with various types of relief for the sore throat, headache, stuffiness, and general feeling of malaise.

 

This is one holiday I will be glad to see come to an end.