Drowning My Blue Christmas In Cookies And Melted Chocolate

        I'd venture to say that a good many of us are having a blue Christmas this year. Which is not to say that there aren't those who are doing all right with their Christmas of white, or not white. But for for those of us who who are spending the holidays staying dutifully cloistered at home in our COVID bubble, apart from our friends, our family, our loved ones, those who give our lives meaning and sustenance, it's hard.
         Almost everyone I associate with - I mean, everyone I used to associate with but don't  anymore - is somewhere on the blue spectrum these days, as I myself am.
        "I'll have a blue Christmas without you," Elvis sang in my head as I set up on our front porch the kitschy Christmas figurines so loved by my grandchildren when they arrived from Los Angeles with my daughter and son-in-law for their Christmas visit.

     "I'll be so blue thinking about you," he silently crooned as we decorated the tree without them,

...and reminisced about years gone by.

         And while this Christmas I'm thankful as thankful can be for the loved ones who share my bubble,

​....I miss my loved ones in Los Angeles.

      I miss my my loved ones in Chicago.

      I miss my  loved ones who live across town.

      I miss my sister.

       I miss my mother.

          No doubt all of us who are hearing Elvis in our heads are finding our own way of dealing with our blue Christmas.
          As for me, I've thrown myself into baking cookies and dunking things in chocolate.
​          Recruiting my daughter Theresa and my hubby Tom as enlistees, I've been leading the charge of the cookie and chocolate-dipping brigade.

     
     We baked and/or dipped about 60 or 70 dozen goodies.    
     I sent boxes of cookies to my kids,

...and Theresa and I made up plates of treats,

...that we delivered to friends, neighbors, and folks that we've met since the COVID epidemic while walking, and walking, and walking around the neighborhood who were also walking, and walking, and walking around the neighborhood, all of us walking, and walking, and walking around the neighborhood because there was no place else to go.
​      Did baking and delivering all those goodies help my blue Christmas?
      Well, it's definitely several shades lighter.
      Everyone have yourselves a merry little Christmas.