Hello there! ^_^
So, as I've probably told some of you, Christmas is always a very hectic time of the year for me ๐ต.
First is work. As always, the moment some people start taking a few days off, the rest of us (especially the younger ones) have to start assuming some extra shifts. Right now I'm working from home, on account of this Covid situation. But, if you're under the impression that this is a great deal (as I was ๐ ), you're quite wrong. I log a lot more working hours online than I ever did, while physically going to work. Somehow, bosses feel that, since you're at home, there's no problem working some extra hours โฆ and for free, no less. ๐
Then there's Christmas itself.
Every year my family gets together for Christmas Eve and lunch the following day, normally at my brother's home, since he has two small children. It's the kind of family gathering where everyone brings a main dish and a dessert. The owner of the house provides drinks and gets the boring dish-washing and cleaning tasks. ๐งน
This year, however, also because of Covid, we decided not to meet in person, since some of our family members work within the health system, and could pose a serious risk to the older members of our family. So we decided to have a Zoom Christmas, LOL ๐ (welcome to the 21st Century ๐ฉโ๐ป) This way, everyone would stay in their respective homes. On my side, it was just me and my mom.
Still, everyone felt that it was kind of sad, having just a plain dinner. (Truth be told, everyone just wanted to eat those delicious dishes that, don't know why, we only make on special occasions). ๐ฅ๐ฐ ๐ฅ ๐ ๐น๐ So, we decided to cook as always, and then my brother, armed with his Santa's hat and anti-covid mask, would do an uber-eat kind of system, and go from home to home, taking and swapping all kinds of delicious food. Everyone was, of course, immediately on board ๐. Until we actually started cooking ๐.
The idea was, cook like always and then split it into small boxes to be delivered to each house. But then we started to think that a slice of cake or quiche would never be as beautiful or look as good as the whole thing ๐ฐ ๐. And so my mom went and was like: Why not make it half the recipe instead? This way we can give everyone a whole (although smaller) cake. Or make individual portions, like small pastries instead of a large one ๐ง๐ฅ. Of course, being a sucker for beautiful things I immediately agreed! ๐คฉ Besides, I love decorating food for special occasions, and was feeling rather depressed about this whole "just a slice", "just a piece" situation. Ah, I was truly naรฏve. ๐
From having to bake one big cake, we went to having to bake four smaller ones. From having to make a mushroom quiche, we went to having to make five also smaller ones. From two large tuna puff pastries, we went to more than twenty individual ones. And so on, and so on. Not to mention that we only have one oven. And, we only have two baking molds? (don't know if that's how you call it lol ๐ ). Which meant a loooooot of dishwashing ๐ญ.
Anyways. Long story made short. From spending one day in the kitchen, like every year, we went to spending three entire days. I was dead on my feet by the time we finally finished the whole task โ ๏ธ, practically falling asleep atop of my plate during Christmas dinner ๐ช (thankfully everything happened through Zoom and hopefully no one noticed ๐คซ). So yeah, no more of this small cute stuff for everyone. Have pity on me, please ๐ค. I'm still hungover โ ๏ธ ๐ฝ ๐พ ๐ค.
I was planning on giving you guys a few extra updates as a Christmas gift ๐๐, but end up only being able to update the novel twice in a row (I was going for three - 24th, 25th and 26th). And I'm still not 100% sure of what I did ๐ต . Hopefully, I didn't write anything too silly ๐. It came to the point where I had to choose between updating or answering your precious messages. I believe that you'd rather have the updates, so that's what I did. So sorry for neglecting you guys this past week ๐โโ๏ธ. I'm in deep need of a week's worth of sleep ๐ด๐ด๐ด๐ด.
Ah, anyway! Happy Holidays to you all ๐คถ๐ป ๐ ๐ป!! I just hope to still be writing to you all same time, next year!
You're very crazy author ๐!