Happy New Year! I’m sharing a wrap up post with highlights from my December, including what I made, what I found challenging, and festive photos. Looking back can help us move forward. So I’m reviewing the last month of 2020 before next year’s fresh start.

This post is inspired by A Chronic Voice’s linkup party, which is a way for bloggers to connect and write about similar themes. I’ve decided to write on three of the linkup themes: Beginning, Enduring, and Revealing. I’ve also decided to add two themes of my own: Creating and Celebrating.

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Beginning a New Year

I like the idea of pausing and looking back at the start of the new year. The thought of doing a wrap up of the whole year felt overwhelming though (especially this year), so I decided wrapping up the last month of 2020 would still provide a positive chance to look back and close this chapter.

One tradition I have at the close of the year is to look back over my reading list from the year and tallying up how many books I read. I’ll also update my list of 2020 reading goals here on the blog.

The last few years, I also write a year end review including favorite memories, my Bible verse of the year, and other highlights. This is something I just keep for myself versus sharing on the blog.

Revealing The Gifts I Made

I love the idea of sharing photos of what crafts I’m making as Christmas gifts, but then any recipients who read my blog would get a sneak peek at their presents! Now that I have swapped gifts with everyone, I can share these photos of my latest projects.

I made Christmas cards featuring cats in windows this year. My mom cut out the individual pieces so I could mix and match them. If you want to create your own, we used this die-cut set and this one. Here’s the die cut machine we like.

I had fun creating sweet yarn bird ornaments for friends. You can find instructions on Pinterest here.

I also made this flying key ornament for a friend who also loves Harry Potter. I traced the wings on velum using the template from this YouTube tutorial.

Creating: Writing and Decorating  

My second post was published on The Mighty: The Power of Celebrating Holiday Months vs. Days in Life With Chronic Illness. The examples I draw are from Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas, but I think the ideas could be adapted for any holiday.

I also wrote my family’s Christmas letter. It made me happy to be able to help my family even with a little task, while also spreading Christmas cheer to family and friends.

We have made gingerbread houses almost every year since I was little. (Usually, they’re actually made of graham crackers.) This year my brother joined my parents and I virtually, and we had a lot of fun. My favorite part was making Oreos into penguins.

We also have a new tree this year! I have been doing some research on PVC trees and the fact that they usually contain lead and other toxins—yikes! My family agreed to replace our old artificial tree with this homemade one. I found the design, my mom figured out the dimensions, and my dad cut the wood and built it, so it was a true family project.

Enduring Chronic Illness

It was another rough month health-wise, with lots of autoimmune fever flare ups, nearly passing out several times from anemia, increase in fibromyalgia stiffness, and several days of fatigue so heavy I struggled to move. I wanted to briefly record the struggles of December—the good memories are even more special when I remember how hard I fought to be able to do them. Recording the battle makes the victory sweeter.

Christmas Eve found me feeling very congested, sore, and flared. I was so exhausted I almost fell asleep in the afternoon, meaning we postponed a planned virtual game with my brother. Unfortunately, I was feeling even worse on Christmas day; my head and sinuses had been hurting so much it was hard to sleep and I think I was getting (or had) a sinus infection. I felt very weak all day, so it was mostly a lie down and ride it out kind of day. But I still got to celebrate later, as I’ll share below.

Celebrating December

The Christmasy things I got to do in December included gift drop offs for a few friends and my grandparents. It was wonderful to say hello from a social distance.

Here I am getting ready to deliver presents. Mom made the cute tree boxes for my bird ornaments using this die-cut and this one.

I also hosted two virtual parties. For the first one, I asked my friends to bring along their book and movie recommendations. The second was Christmas themed: we played What’s In Your Phone, and I ran popular Christmas songs through multiple languages on Google Translate to see if they could guess the original title. (I was inspired by this channel on YouTube.)

Want more virtual party ideas?
How To Stay Connected From A Distance
How to Stay connected From a Distance Holiday Edition

We also virtually attended Lindsey Stirling’s holiday concert. It was the first concert I was able to “go to” since 2015, so it was extra special.

Christmas at a Slower Pace

Christmas Eve—My parents and I were able to “attend” church for one of my favorite holiday traditions: Christmas Eve service. The virtual service was a lovely way to prepare for celebrating Jesus’ birthday, and we were able to recreate one of my favorite parts: singing Silent Night by candelight. In year’s past, I’ve had to miss this service due to my health, so it was a blessing to be able to participate.

Christmas Day—We opened stockings and a couple gifts, then we mostly watched movies. Thankfully my family is flexible when my health demands I cancel plans, so we decided to move our Christmas dinner with my brother to the next day. I had my first cup of hot chocolate this winter, and the caffeine and delicious hazelnut milk helped me feel more awake and festive. My mom cooked a delicious steak, which is what I had requested for Christmas dinner, and we watched a cozy program about snow.

After dinner, I was able to sit at the piano and play a few Christmas carols, one of my favorite things to do around the holidays. I hadn’t played piano in a year, and I did rather poorly, but it was still quite nice to be able to create music, even if I missed some notes. Then we watched A Muppet Christmas Carol, which is one of my favorite Christmas movies.

December 26—I was so thankful to wake up and be able to declare to my family that “My head no longer feels like its exploding!” LOL, always a promising start! I dubbed the day “Christmas 2.0” and we exchanged our gifts while listening to Michael Bublé. My brother had been self-isolating for two weeks so it would be safe for me to go to his apartment, so we were able to spend the afternoon with him opening gifts and eating my mom’s peanut butter chocolate chip cookies. We were able to see some Christmas lights on the drive home, and it was a really enjoyable, easy-going day. I’m so thankful that I was feeling better and able to spend time celebrating.

What were some memorable things from your December?
Do you also pause to look back at the end of a year? Does looking back at just the last month seem more doable for you?

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