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Pine needles
Dec. 24th, 2021 05:23 pmSemi-self-imposed* Lockdown Christmas #2 is underway, and I am resolutely trying to have a relaxing a time as possible, packed with as many enjoyable activities as possible.
I started the day off with a rather intense yoga/meditation practice, walked along the misty riverfront, and returned home in time for Zoom Christmas present unwrapping with Matthias's family. Because our plans were changed so abruptly, a lot of our presents were already at their place, and a lot of their presents from us are still here, but other than time-sensitive gifts like 2022 wall calendars, we're going to hand things over later in person rather than wrestling with the monster that is sending parcels between the EU and Britain post-Brexit. In any case, the small children's presents were all there, the main gifts we'd bought Matthias's parents, sister, and brother-in-law were all there, and Christmas for me is much more about food and people than getting gifts, so the whole situation was fine by me.
After we finished talking to them, I finished off the book I was reading — These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong, which is a retelling of Romeo and Juliet set in 1920s Shanghai. I love reading about this particular period and setting, and Gong's book certainly did it justice. It was also a lot of fun to see Shakespeare's characters and plot devices translated into a new time and place, and I especially appreciated that a lot of subtextual queerness of the play is made textual. I'm less enthused by the fact that the book is first in a series, since it feels as if it's stretching out the premise too thinly, but I will probably still read the resulting sequels.
There was also time this evening to read 'The Tinder Box' — free short fiction from Kate Elliott. This was another retelling, in this case of Andersen's fairy tale, with Elliott's trademark focus on justice, revolution, and scepticism about monarchy.
After I've finished catching up with Dreamwidth comments, I'll move on to setting up our Christmas Eve dinner — salad, fresh bread, and smoked salmon — before snuggling up in front of the wood-burning stove. And tomorrow, other than a FaceTime call with my family, I will have no demands on my time, and it will be all about the Yuletide collection opening, and more books, and more delicious food. It's not how I was expecting to spend my Christmas holiday, but we're definitely making the best of it.
__________________________
*Self-imposed because the government here is still steadfastly refusing to implement anything stricter than mask mandates, semi because the main driver behind our Lockdown Christmas is the fact that Germany closed the border to arrivals from the UK, so it was not entirely self-imposed.
I started the day off with a rather intense yoga/meditation practice, walked along the misty riverfront, and returned home in time for Zoom Christmas present unwrapping with Matthias's family. Because our plans were changed so abruptly, a lot of our presents were already at their place, and a lot of their presents from us are still here, but other than time-sensitive gifts like 2022 wall calendars, we're going to hand things over later in person rather than wrestling with the monster that is sending parcels between the EU and Britain post-Brexit. In any case, the small children's presents were all there, the main gifts we'd bought Matthias's parents, sister, and brother-in-law were all there, and Christmas for me is much more about food and people than getting gifts, so the whole situation was fine by me.
After we finished talking to them, I finished off the book I was reading — These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong, which is a retelling of Romeo and Juliet set in 1920s Shanghai. I love reading about this particular period and setting, and Gong's book certainly did it justice. It was also a lot of fun to see Shakespeare's characters and plot devices translated into a new time and place, and I especially appreciated that a lot of subtextual queerness of the play is made textual. I'm less enthused by the fact that the book is first in a series, since it feels as if it's stretching out the premise too thinly, but I will probably still read the resulting sequels.
There was also time this evening to read 'The Tinder Box' — free short fiction from Kate Elliott. This was another retelling, in this case of Andersen's fairy tale, with Elliott's trademark focus on justice, revolution, and scepticism about monarchy.
After I've finished catching up with Dreamwidth comments, I'll move on to setting up our Christmas Eve dinner — salad, fresh bread, and smoked salmon — before snuggling up in front of the wood-burning stove. And tomorrow, other than a FaceTime call with my family, I will have no demands on my time, and it will be all about the Yuletide collection opening, and more books, and more delicious food. It's not how I was expecting to spend my Christmas holiday, but we're definitely making the best of it.
__________________________
*Self-imposed because the government here is still steadfastly refusing to implement anything stricter than mask mandates, semi because the main driver behind our Lockdown Christmas is the fact that Germany closed the border to arrivals from the UK, so it was not entirely self-imposed.