It's Beginning to Look Festive

I have had a fairly busy day, today.  One of my friends was hosting this month's prayer meeting, but I didn't attend in person since my immune system is compromised and I didn't want to risk exposing myself to any colds or coughs.  Instead, I sent my Christmas gift to her through my cousin and I attended the prayer gathering through Skype!  I think it was the first time anyone in the group has done that!  

I had started decorating the Christmas tree, yesterday, but I got too tired to finish it.  Daughter did some of it, but then, she complained that there were too many decorations and not enough tree!  :D  This morning, I finished decorating the tree - well, all except for the angel on the top.  Will need to get daughter to climb up on the step-stool and do that.

Later, I started decorating the living room mantel.  Daughter had hung the stockings, earlier.  I set up the Christmas village.  The village started out, about 25 years ago, with a collection of 10 mini houses, bought on sale for $7.  Over the years, I added items when they went on sale - several of them are from the dollar stores.  None of them are pre-wired, but they have openings on the bottom for a bulb.  I set them on the bulbs of the strand of lights to get that lit from within effect.  

Living Room Mantel

We are also making preparations for the annual end-of-year almsgiving, which will take place tomorrow.  At first, I wasn't going to have an almsgiving this year, because I wasn't sure if I'd be well enough, etc.  But then, daughter volunteered to do the cooking, etc., as long as we scale back to just a couple of the monks and only a few invitees.  So that is what we are doing, this year.  Only two monks have been invited, only four people have been invited and two of them can't make it.  I cooked a cashew curry and a lentil curry this morning; daughter prepared a roasted cauliflower soup, sauted green beans, a sesame carrot salad, something called caramelized sweet bell pepper confetti, and brownies.  We will make the rest of the preparations tomorrow morning.

We also cleaned and tidied the house.  It's a bit hard to do when one is also decorating for Christmas!  The family room is full of storage boxes, since I haven't unpacked all the decorations!

Today, my hair started to fall.  When I combed my hair in the morning, I had quite a bit of hair come off.  No bare spots yet, simply because I have so much hair, but I am wondering if, by the end of the week, I'll be showing bare patches.  Of course I knew that the hair would fall off, but, now that it is actually happening, I feel a bit sad. 

Today, I am grateful for:

- Modern technology which made it possible for me to participate in the prayer meeting on-line!

- Daughter helping me with preparations for the almsgiving.

- The shower of rain we had yesterday, which watered the garden for me.

- The bright sunshine, today.

- Brownies, warm from the oven!