The Year of Banana Bread
Dear Family and Friends,
As this year draws to a close I’m happy to say despite the pandemic and the lock-downs we were really busy with lots to tell you in my annual holiday letter!
Although our travels were a bit limited this year, we did take many trips back and forth between New York and Connecticut, and were always on the lookout for interesting places to stop along the way. In fact last month we stopped at a new drive-thru Starbucks that had just opened. And several times passing through the countryside we saw roadkill, but that wasn’t so pleasant.
Unfortunately during the year our cat developed an allergy and so now we feed him special, rather costly hypoallergenic cat food. But luckily Chewy delivers.
And again this year we spent Thanksgiving in the country and cooked a turkey on the grill. It was yummy and there was no mess in the kitchen, I was really thankful for that!
Our newspaper was delivered every day and I must say I’ve become a real whiz at the KenKen, although I still can’t finish the crossword puzzle much beyond Wednesday.
Let’s see, what else did we do during these past 12 months?
Oh yes, I baked lots of banana bread – 22 this year up from only 19 last year. But now we realize we really don’t like banana bread, so after I use up all those over-ripe bananas I guess I’ll stop.
Last week we went to Walgreens to get our flu vaccines. It was an exciting outing although not as exciting as when we went to get our Covid vaccines and boosters – that was really a shot in the arm.
But of course the real highlight of the year were visits from our son, and especially the time he taught us how to hook up the laptop to the TV to watch Netflix.
We also enjoyed Zoom meetings with friends and family, and went to several Zoom celebrations. And I must confess that to some early morning bar and bat mitzvah services I went in my bathrobe and slippers.
Alas over the year we also grieved at Zoom funerals and memorial services – sadly we had too many of those.
But looking on the bright side, thankfully my loved ones are all well, and so I’ll end this holiday letter with my very best wishes for a happy and healthy new year!
xox Dana
– Dana Susan Lehrman
Dana Susan LehrmanThis retired librarian loves big city bustle and cozy country weekends, friends and family, good books and theatre, movies and jazz, travel, tennis, Yankee baseball, and writing about life as she sees it on her blog World Thru Brown Eyes!
www.WorldThruBrownEyes.com
Thank you for sharing an actual holiday letter with us. The truth about banana bread cracked me up. So long, banana bread!
Happy holidays to you and Danny!
Thanx Betsy, may Covid go the way of banana bread!
Loved this letter–made me smile for sure. Well done. We had banana bread too–did you know that you can put bananas in with green tomatoes to help ripen them (and then find a use for the blackened hulks of course)? Lots of green tomatoes from the garden that had to be culled before the frost, and we ripened almost all into fodder for sauces or even salads. Happy next year!
Thanx Khati!
And thanx for the gardening tip.
I do try my hand at growing veggies every year but the weeds usually win out!
Stay well!
Your letter sums up the year beautifully for many of us, Dana. A lot of “lather-rinse-repeat” times. Let’s hope for more variety next year, and a lot less banana bread.
Thanx Marian, yes here’s to less banana bread!
Wonderful holiday letter, Dana. I wasn’t sure if it was just a parody of every other holiday letter, or if it was really true. But there isn’t enough bragging in it to be a parody, so it must be real. Your year sounds a lot like mine, except for the banana bread. Wish I had some of those 22 loaves, I love banana bread! Thanks for a year of great stories!
Thanx Suzy!
l did write it as a parody, but of all the wrong, self-deprecating things and (maybe more truthful things!) rather than the usual self-aggrandizing things one usually finds in a holiday letter!
But now maybe I will send it out to friends and family – of course I can skip my Retro friends as you guys have already read it!
Happy holidays!
I loved the letter, Dana; thanks for sharing with it. And I particularly loved you talking about the nice little things in your life in this Age of Covid, rather than bragging about successes and genius children and the like, as we all too oftern have to hear about.
Just sorry about the whole banana bread thing. Too much of a good thing?
Thanx John! I’d be happy never to see a loaf of banana bread again!
(Full disclosure, can’t lie to a lawyer – I didn’t really keep a count, but I did bake a lot of them, and don’t tell, I also used a mix.)
PS. Actually John, my son is a genius.
I don’t doubt it!
Yeah, he gets his brains from me.
I love your holiday letter, Dana. I too have decided we don’t like banana bread anymore. Finally, a holiday letter that made me smile. Plus, I can relate to your summation of 2021.
Thanx Laurie, to be honest my holiday letter was written tongue-in-cheek, altho I did bake a lot of banana bread – which as John commented was too much of a good thing.
Now Covid is too much of a bad thing, here’s to a happier and healthier new year!
Now that’s a holiday letter, with a remarkable pandemic subtext. Twenty-two loaves of banana bread? And you kept count!
As regards highlights, it’s good to know that there’s a new drive-thru Starbucks on the Connecticut turnpike, that the roadkill passed into the background quickly and that Chewy delivers — even to people celebrating bar and bat mitzvahs in bathrobe and slippers.
Now that you have Netflix, watch “Don’t Look Up.” Timely satire with powerful contemporary applications and a cast do die for (a descriptor in poor taste as you will see). Once again, Cate Blanchett proves herself to be a shape shifter. Wonderful cast overall!
Stay safe; stay sane.
Thanx C, glad you liked my tongue-in-cheek letter, altho I might have taken poetic license in the number of banana breads baked. (And don’t tell but I used a mix.)
And thanx for the Netflix tip, we haven’t seen that one. A good movie we did see recently either on Netflix or On Demand is a French film entitled HE EVEN HAS YOUR EYES. Watch it if you can.
I’m trying for the safety, the sanity is the tricky part.
The Zoom shivas, Zoom funerals and Zoom farewells are so sad. Even introverted me needs to have and give human contact at times like those.
Yes Dave Zoom funerals and memorials are sad, we lost a few very good friends during Covid and being isolated and not being able to grieve with friends was hard.