{"id":1080,"date":"2015-12-11T06:00:12","date_gmt":"2015-12-11T14:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/?p=1080"},"modified":"2015-12-08T18:14:48","modified_gmt":"2015-12-09T02:14:48","slug":"december","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/2015\/12\/11\/december\/","title":{"rendered":"December"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s the second week in December. \u00a0I just finished a joint Ali\/Joanna novella called Random Acts; I\u2019m doing copy editing on next spring\u2019s Ali book, Clawback; I have a short story, jointly written with Eric Van Lustbader that needs to be completed; bookmark requests need to be sent; as well as Christmas cards. \u00a0In other words, it\u2019s busy around here\u2014very busy.<\/span><\/p>\n

But Christmas is coming into focus at our house. \u00a0Our very talented decorator, Jim Hunt, has been here working, not quite round-the-clock but close. \u00a0With the help of his very industrious elf, Robin, the house is gradually taking on its holiday trappings. \u00a0It\u2019s a slow but steady process that moves from room to room. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Over the years we\u2019ve amassed a collection of decorations that resembles a Christmas supply warehouse. \u00a0Each year Jim comes, adds a few items, sends a few items hence, and does his thing in a unique way that eventually brings order from chaos. \u00a0The process takes time\u2014close to two weeks\u2014but it\u2019s also a miraculous undertaking that resembles unwrapping the whole house. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

When the decorations come out each year, there are, inevitably, a few losses. We\u2019re down to nine of the original twelve ornaments in The Twelve Days of Christmas set. \u00a0In the creche by the front door, St. Joseph\u2019s head\u2014which Bill glued back in place five years ago\u2014is still hanging in, but the Angel\u2019s horn disappeared this year. \u00a0It may have rolled under a piece of furniture. \u00a0Good luck getting that back!<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve learned that if a favorite decoration doesn\u2019t make the cut one year, keep the faith. \u00a0It\u2019ll be back next year\u2014or even the year after that.<\/span><\/p>\n

Right now I\u2019m upstairs working and staying out of the way. \u00a0Christmas music is playing softly in the background. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And so, if you happen to have time to read a blog during these very busy December days, thank you. \u00a0And once the house is dressed, I\u2019ll send some photos.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the meantime, be safe as you venture though these cold, dark, and\u2014in Seattle\u2014very rainy days. And even if your heart happens to be broken right now? \u00a0Try to find one small piece of joy in the season, because joy is a very effective remedy for broken hearts. <\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s not the ONLY remedy by any means, but it\u2019s one that works.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s the second week in December. \u00a0I just finished a joint Ali\/Joanna novella called Random Acts; I\u2019m doing copy editing on next spring\u2019s Ali book, Clawback; I have a short story, jointly written with Eric Van Lustbader that needs to be completed; bookmark requests need to be sent; as well as Christmas cards. \u00a0In other […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1080","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christmas"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s3nsBA-december","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1080","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1080"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1080\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1081,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1080\/revisions\/1081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}