I am both hosting and cooking this year, which is stressful because there is a lot to do, but less stressful than just showing up as a guest and having no excuse to stop socializing because the kitchen needs me.

Hi Laura! Good to see your pixels too!

This is a repost of a Bluesky thread discussing what we can expect from the incoming administration, from someone who works in DC. The TL:DR is that it's gonna suck a lot, but there are reasons to believe complete disaster may be avoided.

I’m having some awful whiplash here. Got the happy news at the end of the day yesterday that my team member J had her water break and was headed to the hospital to give birth to her baby boy.

(Spoiler fonting for very different pregnancy news from another team member)

And then an hour later heard from another team member, C, that her 18 week fetus is not going to make it, and to preserve her life and her fertility her doctors are advising her not to wait for a natural miscarriage.

I’m shocked and saddened and underneath it all grateful that both of them but especially C are in blue states where they can at least for now expect care that recognizes them as human beings of value. And hating both that this was one of my first thoughts, and that a year from now it could look so different.

Oh Brenda that is so sad.

Our store had the Grand Re Opening after the remodel and they gave out several grant checks to various charities.

One of them is the Akanimo Cancer Foundation [link] . The founder was here, Ikara But she lost her son to cancer and she started this foundation and named it after her son to not only support children and their families but also families who, like hers, lost their child to cancer.

It started locally and is all over the US now. It's also founded and run by a Black Woman if you want to support that . Or if you know families who need support or help

Thinking of Sumi on her birthday. In hopes that she lurks I'm sending out my wishes for a delightful day.

Oh, Brenda, that is hard stuff.

I still don't know what to do about T'day. After decades of being the host, which I loved, I gave it up a couple of years ago, for reasons. My brother can't eat, so not sure what the plans are there, but I'll find out this weekend. My BIL's BIL is an awesome chef who is hosting an hour or so north of me, and a cousin is hosting an hour south of me. Or I could go with my original plan of going off by myself somewhere. Blah.

Good news on my brother! Preface it to say that bro's list of ailments is long and daunting and if he left the mortal coil tomorrow no one would be surprised, but some hope on the immediate crisis. His biopsy showed a quite treatable form of lung cancer as opposed to an aggressive variety. Whether he will be able to withstand the treatment is another question, but at least there are options available. He also managed to go two days without losing weight so the feeding tube is doing its thing. He came over to see me at my sister's yesterday. He knows that his 3 sisters won't go to his house until he has the big political banner removed. My nephew is supposed to be taking it down.

He still went outside to smoke at my sister's house. Lung cancer didn't stop our dad either as long as he could walk. Brendon's dad died in the hospital stairwell after disconnecting himself from his oxygen and IVs to go have a cigarette. I'm truly grateful that I was able to quit about 40 years ago without any serious difficulty. Addiction sucks.

Brenda, that is definitely whiplash!

Laura, glad there's some tentative good news for your brother.

Every year, Tim and his brothers get together make his mom's fruitcake recipe because they love it so much (my understanding is that, if you like fruitcake, that recipe is very very good; I just don't care for fruitcake). They're doing that after work today, while I go with my SiLs to get pedicures, because we always sit out the fruitcake process. And then I think we're ordering a mess of Chinese food.

That sounds like fun, Steph. I Iike good fruit cake, so I bet I'd be a fan. My mom used to order this fruitcake made by monks. Don't know where she heard about it, but it was goooood. If you like that kind of thing.

Brenda, how awful for C. Sending good wishes J's way.

Laura, whatever you decide, I hope you enjoy T-Day. I'm glad your brother is getting some good news.

Happy Birthday, Sumi!

I'm at the orthodontist waiting for them to cut an errant wire that is errant because a bracket broke. They can't fix the bracket until next Wed., but they are going to snip pokey wire, because, ow.

Every year, Tim and his brothers get together make his mom's fruitcake recipe because they love it so much (my understanding is that, if you like fruitcake, that recipe is very very good; I just don't care for fruitcake).

This reminds me that I need to survey my Jamaican friends and see whose mom has made a nice rum cake for the holidays. That stuff is super yum.

Errant wires are not a good thing.

There is so much on my list and I am so dysfunctional. Ugh. What should be on top of that list is my health, and I haven't done my PT or any exercise since I left NY. And the diet has been on 2 days, off 1, or a really shitty maintenance plan instead of losing the damn weight so you can walk normal plan. It should be fairly easy to stay on track while I am at my sister's place for a few days. If I can get back into a zone for a week I should be good.

Laura, that’s so tough. I’m glad there’s some progress with your brother, but not surprised that the habits of a lifetime are still driving

Going off on my own sounds like an excellent plan, Around here, it’ll just be me and my sister anyway I think. I’m not inclined to argue about plans with my brother and his wife, who are back into their “ Can’t mention anything about Russia or Ukraine without setting off a shit storm” mode. Like, for real. My sister posted a piece from Rebecca Solnit that vaguely mentioned Soviet Russia simply as a case where people endured and kept hope alive and they both flipped out. Wouldn’t explain their issue, except to say it’s “complicated’ and we could discuss it privately. Yeah, fucking miss me with that. I officially do not care.

And happier news I just heard from J’s husband that Elliot was born at 7 o’clock this morning. Yay for baby Elliot!