Highlights: Very cold morning. Lauren's Mini was covered in frost as were the other cars. It's getting to the point of being able to 'see your breath'. We ran to an asian market this morning to get the "Kelley's Kookies" boxes for gifting to the neighbors. We spent over $200 on cookies but it all came together wonderfully. Lauren and I did an "assembly line" and then the three of us went door-to-door dropping them off to Yoshi-a & Yoshi, Karen & Kyler, Sandra Eric and Merick, Lindsey and Amir, Danis and Tom, Cathy and John, Jeff and Teri, Reza (Pierre's owner), Joan, Charlotte and Golida and Ian. Most of them were home and the bags all said "Merry Christmas from Geoff, Jennifer, Lauren and Tommy Mitchell. It felt like a good effort to establish our presence "formally" and also make it clear that we want to establish and foster connections. That's absolutely what I hope happens in 2023 - building out more of these friendships. We also stopped at GOBM and picked up a few new wines to try including a phenomenal Rioja that we're gonna go get more of. I went through and tidy'd up the wine cellar. We've managed to have cleared a decent amount. Jen made a fantastic couple of "keto enchiladas" while Lauren and I ran to Madronia. We took some cleanser and a brush and cleaned her mom's headstone. I noticed that she's set her phone's Lock Screen to a photo we took of her and her mom at the retirement community. I think that's sweet, and an encouraging move for her to have done so. I hope it means there's some attachment there, simply because she doesn't share her feelings openly, but there's obviously feelings there. The TV was still in place and we ended up watching "Where the Crawdads Sing". I enjoyed it, but it felt like a fair movie version of what was likely a far more dramatic book. After it was over I was tempted to start watching the Abbey Road documentary but instead, I put it back in Tommy's room. I can watch things on other devices. I want my distractions constrained. Instead of getting sucked into another 1.5hrs of staring at a screen I used the time to get other things done around the house. I'm on a roll – tomorrow will be a full court press to nail at least 6+ organizational objectives.
Accomplishments: The Christmas gift distribution in the neighborhood.
Anticipation: Getting a slew of home-based tasks done tomorrow including patio light extensions, organizing the cable drawers, fixing some things in Tommy's room (cabinet doors), and a lot more.
Goals: Use the time tomorrow to also listen to and complete one of the audiobooks I'm listening to. Thinking it'll be Tarantino's.
Gratitudes: The peace I find in calm evenings and routines. Having Lauren home.
One Sentence Summary: Spreading holiday cheer as a family, within walking distance.