December 2025 – Mom's Guide to the Galaxy

Christmas Stocking Memories

In college, I spent a year abroad at the University of Glasgow in Scotland, which was a fabulous experience is so many ways, including my first Live Action Role-Playing (LARP) adventures. That’s not what comes to mind this time of year though. As the dorms closed over break, I went with the guy I was dating to his parents’ home near Edinburgh for most of the month we had off (with a fun-filled week in Paris for New Year’s). His parents were amazingly welcoming to this strange American he dragged home, including me in the family Christmas traditions.

A collection of stocking stuffers wrapped in an assortment of different wrapping papers. (The wrapping paper is actually double-side, so six different patterns is only three rolls.)

On Christmas morning, I woke to find a stocking lying at the foot of my bed – rather than hung by a fireplace (not that we did that in Miami either) – and was amazed to find that every gift inside that stocking was individually wrapped! I recall being delighted as I unwrapped each gift, many of which were small Lego sets. (Oddly, I owned no Lego at all until that year. I certainly made up for it over the next few years.)

This year, in the midst of dealing with the delightful homeownership issues that I mentioned, I decided to do the same for my daughter… wrapping all of the stocking stuffers, that is, not the Lego sets part. (Don’t worry, we have plenty of Lego in the house.) I’ve thought about it in the past and never got around to it. After wrapping all of them, I realized that she’s the same age I was when I woke up to a stocking full of wrapped gifts, so I guess this was the perfect year to do it.

Homeownership is not for the faint of heart

Almost two weeks ago now, it snowed – again – bringing our accumulated snow to a whopping 11 inches early in the season. It was warm enough that the snow was melting on the roof even as it was falling, causing an annoying drip drip drip outside my bedroom window, which I unfortunately noticed in the middle of the night. I suspect the persistent dripping off the edge of the gutters is partially due to the smaller width of the gutters after the siding and gutter work early last year; this was not a problem we had encountered before. A few hours later, I was sitting in the living room sorting embroidery thread and realized I could open the curtains for better lighting, as it was a sunny day and reasonably warm (for winter).

Snow, not content to pile on our roof, garden, and driveway early this winter, melted into our house, leaving a puddle in our bay window. (Alas, poor Olaf.)

The ceiling of our bay window shows water damage.

I was definitely not prepared for what I found! There was a puddle on the bay window bench and water damage on the window’s ceiling. I scrambled to clean it up, then move everything we had near the window out of the way, discarding a couple cardboard boxes after relocating their (fortunately undamaged) contents. It was a while before I returned to sorting my embroidery thread, followed by waves of cleaning, and as the snow continued melting, the realization that the afternoon heat (I use the term loosely, it was in the mid-30s) was causing a steady drip of snow melt and I wanted more than just a pair of towels in the window to mop it up.

Monday morning found me on the phone to the window company, who installed the window back in 2018, followed by reaching out to the company who redid our roof, siding, and gutters last year. The consensus is that nothing can be done until after the snow melts (did I mention 11 inches of accumulation?), my towel/bucket approach was the necessary approach for now, and the cause of the leak (likely the gutter work) needs to be fixed before the window can be. As the weather shifted back to cold (and colder… last Saturday’s high was 8 degrees), the drip temporarily abated, though it did return this afternoon in a sudden burst of warm weather (high of 48!). Hopefully enough has melted to clear the gutters of ice, though we’re not keeping the warm weather for long, so I’m not sure of the repair timing.

Another disaster struck Friday morning, at least for someone who works from home… our internet connection vanished mid-morning! Our neighbors use the same service, so I was able to verify that it was isolated to our house, and now know that the wire bringing fiber into our house can freeze at the box if water gets into the wrong spot, pushing the wires apart and breaking the connection. On the plus side, they were able to send a technician out that evening, though the poor guys were working in the dark by the time they got here.

As the title says, homeownership is not for the faint of heart. On the plus side, there’s chocolate. On the downside, I wonder if that’s why my glucose count was higher than usual on my annual blood test last week?

Universal Yums, round 2 at the library

Over the summer, our local public library hosted a Yum Club event with treats from Taiwan. Having enjoyed that, we prioritized signing up for the next one when it was announced and were delighted to discover a variety of treats from Mexico.

Part of the introduction to Mexico sheet from Universal Yums.

Similar to our exploration of treats from Taiwan, Universal Yums provided full ingredients lists for every treat, as well as a paragraph with a detailed description and context for each of the treats. For example, one of the items was “Japanese-Style Coated Peanuts,” which is described as “an international fusion snack” and explains that they were created by a Japanese man who immigrated to Mexico in 1932. They’re quite popular, Mexico produces over 30,000 tons of them each year.

Most of the treats in this box were sweet, with only four of the thirteen items being savory. One of those, the Snacker Norteñitos Corn Chips with Chile placed first on my list, followed closely by the Las Sevillanas Obleas, a Caramel Wafer Cookie with Goat’s Milk. There were several people attending who didn’t care for caramel, so that cookie ranked low for many of the other attendees. My third choice was the Lupy Lups Sour, a Sour-Flavored Challenge Cotton Candy – easily the best pre-packaged cotton candy I’ve had. (When I was younger, I’d buy fresh spun cotton candy at festivals in Guatemala, and that’s hard to beat.)

All in all, a delightful experience, and an excellent precursor to the Universal Yums Advent Calendar that we’re currently working through. I expect I’ll share details about that adventure in the near future.

Touch snow, the grass is covered.

It feels like just yesterday that Cassandra posted about touching grass; it was actually two weeks ago, and the seasons have definitely shifted more towards the snowy side here in Chicagoland. In fact, the only place grass is visible in our yard is where we cleared paths to necessary areas, such as the birdfeeder and composter.

That said, it’s awfully pretty in a different way. The square lumps of the six matching raised beds amuse me, the leaves that fell after the snow (about 10 inches of shoveling, only 8 currently remaining), and the cluster of birds around the birdfeeder, scattering seeds all around it. It is the ideal time of year to appreciate the beauty of our garden… from the comfort of a heated house.