Category Archives: Castle Willett

We’re close to the end of January, but there are still loose ends and fiddly bits left to deal with from 2023. You might have noticed that it’s been just a tad crazed here in terms of time commitments for the past few months, but with a whole slew of big deadlines met for both me individually and for the amazing team that I’m lucky enough to be a part of, this will be the first weekend in a while where I can “relax.”

If by “relax” you mean “dive into the stacks and stacks of housework and life things that have been shoved onto the back burner since Thanksgiving.” No pressure!

I think that the 2023 Christmas cards will remain unsent. I’ve kept thinking up clever lines for the seasonal letter to explain why the cards came out just before Christmas, or just after, or just after the New Year, or for MLK day, or now for the 20th anniversary of the Spirit and Opportunity rovers landing on Mars… But let’s face it, that’s several days of work and while deadlines have been met, I’m not on vacation. There’s a serious chance that “later” at this point means I would be lucky to get those cards in the mail by Valentine’s Day. The cards and postage and everything else got purchased – but they’ll all save for next year. Maybe with a little bit better planning I can get them out on a more timely basis.

The Christmas lights got turned off last weekend (or was it two weeks ago? yeah, I think maybe…) but they still need to get taken down. Last weekend was both pouring rain and eyeball deep in budget final drafts. Tomorrow is suppose to actually be sort of nice. Nice before a series of storms move in and both of the next two upcoming weekends look rainy, so tomorrow those lights come down.

We’ll know on Sunday if my beloved Chiefs are going to our fourth Super Bowl in five years and also if we’re having a Super Bowl party in two weeks. If we are, the preparations need to get underway.

So… “Relaxed.” But it’s a completely different sort of busy and stress. A lot of grunt labor, not mental gymnastics and detailed financial analysis. Put on some tunes, see if I can get my earbuds to stay in, make sure I don’t fall off of any ladders.

And as for the last couple of years, while taking down the Christmas lights and packing them away, I’ll be wondering if I’ll be re-arranging them and putting them up next year outside of our “forever home.”

We can hope.

I’ve lost a day or two in all of the hullabaloo. My calendar and watch keep reminding me that it’s Christmas Eve, but my head is trapped somewhere in early to mid December. The year is irrelevant and up for grabs.

I’m sure it will all work out and be fine. (Or at least fine-ish.)

Our tree’s only theme is “whatever we feel like putting on there!” White lights, colored lights, bubble lights, an airplane circling the top, old family heirloom ornaments, new ornaments every year from our travels, annual ornaments with planes, and so on.

It’s us.

This year’s new ornaments include a couple from our trip to Winnipeg, one from the Chiefs’ Super Bowl victory, one from a trip up the California coast to Solvang, and a talking Ted Lasso from a dear friend.

I hope everyone enjoys the holiday tonight, tomorrow, and on through the last week of the year, preparing to end 2023 and kick off a better 2024.

That would be the “Pomelo house” that we sold five and a half years ago. We could put up a LOT of Christmas lights there. The house we’ve been renting for the past six Christmases? Some, but it’s a small fraction as much.

Maybe the next house, the “forever home” that we hope to find in 2024.