(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Top Comments: Seasonal 2024 Part IV (Wrapping It All Up) Edition [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2024-12-23 In case you’re going “but I don’t celebrate Christmas, is this for me?” the answer is a resounding yes! While my personal perspective is primarily secular but culturally Christian-based, these diaries are for everyone who celebrates a holiday in December that makes you happy, that you mark differently than other days, or involves negotiating who brings what food where and/or a family newsletter… or even if there isn’t... this is a place for you and I really hope you’ll bring yourself to the comments! December is the time for my seasonally-themed TC diary series. It’s happened every year since 2010, with topics ranging from music to food to ugly sweaters. I did do one Seasonal diary in 2008, and since 2009 was the first December with K2 I was a little distracted. You can find them all using the tag #seasonal (which also includes great diaries by other folks!), and yes I have a spreadsheet to keep track of them all! We started our 2024 Seasonal Series (re)considering the Naughty vs Nice list and gratitude, then looked at old and new versions of some traditional musical favorites. Last week we reminisced about holidays gone awry. Tonight is the last in my series, and for a variety of reasons my brain is full of scattered thoughts… so instead of one big topic, it’s going to be a diary that probably feels a lot like YOU do in the days just before your December Holiday Day(s). Uncharacteristically, I finished my holiday shopping with several days to spare. It almost wasn’t the case, as Amazon routed the last of my packages on a multiday tour of nearest processing facility and surrounding towns on the Out For Delivery vehicle, but they pulled it out in the clutch and everything ended up here last night Also uncharacteristically, I’m about halfway done with wrapping my presents. If you look at the cover photo for my 2021 Wrapping Paper-themed diary, you will note some of these rolls are the same. We haven’t bought new paper since a weak moment in 2022, and are making a dent. There’s a roll of llama paper in the 2021 photo now gracing all of the presents for our bonus child (aka K1’s partner) and we did in fact use up all the penguin paper. Everyone is getting different paper, and the gifts that are family or couple-themed get their own wrapping paper! I expect we’ll need to buy more someday, but I have no idea when!!! That diary I wrote last week was aspirational, by the way. In it I shared how last year K1 and her partner had covid and we had to adapt and postpone festivities. Well… yesterday morning our dearest family friends, who we spend every Christmas Eve with, texted “so, our eldest has covid. We need to cancel.” So it will be the five of us for Christmas Eve fondue. I want to remind everyone that while you may want to be done with covid (and flu, and rsv), the viruses are not done with us. Casa Brillig will have on bright red N95 masks when we attend our UU church service tomorrow, and I just ordered combined covid/flu tests from iHealth (the bright orange tests) because they’re on sale for $9 each if you buy 6. PLEASE stay safe and keep up with the available data for your locale, even if it’s not as easy as it used to be. Finally, since we are all concerned with prices because Eggs, I did a check-in on the total cost of the Twelve Days of Christmas and will continue to do so every year. When I diaried this just one year ago, the total cost according to the PNC Christmas Price Index was $46,729.86. This year, there was a 5.4% increase overall, bringing the cost to 49,263.47. Much like last year, the increase was tied directly to the cost of housing the Partridge (up 16%), the cost of Geese (up 15.4%, and I ask again WHY given how many freeking Geese there are), and the Pipers & Drummers, who got a decent raise for entertainers at almost 16%. You should be totally aghast that the Maids are STILL costing only $58, the same as in… I kid you not… 2009. Minimum wage sucks. That’s it for me. I’ll wrap the Tops in some pretty paper and hope you enjoy this period between Winter Solstice and New Year’s Eve. It’s been fun doing this seasonal series again, and I’ll be back at it next year!! [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/12/23/2293486/-Top-Comments-Seasonal-2024-Part-IV-Wrapping-It-All-Up-Edition?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=latest_community&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/