[Lana] As I am sure we can all agree, this has been an extremely peculiar holiday season. Normally, John and I would have taken in some kind of holiday festivities ahead of Christmas. We get enthralled by Christmas markets and love to visit light displays. We may have even tried to sneak in a little seasonally haunted ghost tour. At the very least, we would have visited some of our friends and family, sharing good food and great conversation. That is when I always take the opportunity to snap some photos of all the various ornaments and decorations that I share here every year. This year though, things are anything but normal.

[John] Throughout this whole season, I spent a fair bit of time worrying that Lana would be really down without being able to take pictures of decorations and ornaments either in family homes or in stores as we go about our seasonal shopping. Adding on no ability to take in our usual fun Christmas activities, I was concerned that this Christmas might start feeling too different for us to properly enjoy it.

[Lana] I know that we are in the same boat (physically distanced of course) so let us know how the pandemic has affected your holiday plans and what you did to raise your Christmas spirits. Did you try to keep things as familiar as you could or did you alter your traditions? Did you find completely new ways to celebrate in order to keep the season festive? You can let us know here, on the Carbon Lilies social media or even email us at carbonlilies@hotmail.com.

John and I kept our annual staple of watching our 12 Movies for the 12 Days of Christmas. We also did get to add a couple of things that we have been wanting to do together. We love doing things together and took advantage of our lightened travel schedule by getting arts-and-crafty as well as trying out some co-operative baking.

[John] While we might be in the same physically distanced boat, we’re all handling things differently and some people have really needed to just feel down and awkward (which is perfectly good for you to do if that’s what you need) and we’ve certainly had our own moments. I, however, tend to be someone who takes our situations and works to make them better somehow. So, after some thinking, I presented Lana with some stay-home Christmas activity ideas and was so happy when they triggered some enthusiasm.

[Lana] John had purchased a couple of white, blank, full-face drama craft masks that she was going to decorate for us for Hallowe’en. As you can imagine, October is a busy month for us so she didn’t get around to fancifying them. So instead, we thought that we might be able to create some cool Christmas-themed designs for them and that is exactly what we did. Using some supplies that we constantly have laying around and the bits from a few deconstructed “ugly” Christmas sweaters, we designed an objet d’art for each other. I think they turned out pretty darn spiffy, if I do say so myself.

[John] I must admit that I found the idea of creating a mask for Lana, a bit daunting. I really wanted it to be something he would like and be proud of. I have to say, though, that I had so much fun doing it that I lost all hesitation shortly after beginning, and was just excited to be spending time together making fun stuff.

[Lana] You gave me a curly moustache… how could I not love it?

Our next big collaboration involved something I just don’t do…baking. Not that I can’t or don’t enjoy it, I just really never found many opportunities to try. So, with John (who is a baking machine) guiding me through the basics and helping with a lot of things I was totally unsure of, I produced my first ever batch of gingerbread cookies made from scratch. While we waited for the dough to do its thing, John and I made peanut butter doggy treats for our friend’s pup.

[John] This was also my first time making gingerbread cookies and it was something I was always a bit afraid to try. Whenever I heard people talk about making these cookies or watched people on baking shows doing them, it always seemed like an easily ruined item. I never really thought I’d be able to make good gingerbread cookies. I am so glad we decided to just have fun with it and have now discovered that we can do it (the baking, that is – the decorating is another task entirely and we may need hundreds of attempts to even become somewhat skilled in that area). I truly want this to be an annual activity for us.

[Lana] A couple hours later, having now freehand-cut and baked our gingerbread as well as mixed up some royal icing (I should mention at this point that I do watch some baking shows… not that I actually retain any techniques or knowledge beyond some sparse bits of terminology), we decorated our masterpieces. We waited impatiently for them to set. Well, I was impatient… John acted like it was just any other day and not like these were about to be the bestest cookies ever. Wow! They were delicious.

[John] Okay, I should clarify here… Lana cut out his cookies based on super cool stencils that he drew, freehand, because he is actually a talented artist with amazing drawing and painting skills. I, on the other hand, can barely draw a stick-figure. So, I went the route of standard tree and people cookie cutters for mine. And, though I bake and try out different recipes, I had never made royal icing and I have to say I really struggled trying to figure out the right consistency for us to decorate our cookies without creating icing pools. I did not totally succeed here… and I’m okay with that because, we decided we were treating ourselves to sugary treats this Christmas and so, gingerbread cookies covered in failed icing décor kind of sounded awesome.

[Lana] John is being way to hard on herself. There was absolutely nothing wrong with the icing.

[John] I appreciate your kind words. The pictures (of mine, at least) will prove quite differently.

[Lana] I know it may sound like I am making a big deal out of some fairly simple things but, had this been a pandemic-free year, John and I likely would not have taken the time to create our masks together and, especially not bake together. It was this time that we shared together that was our true gift. Maybe we can find time every year and make this our new tradition.

[John] I really do have to say that while months of isolation has presented some challenges and sadness, we have gained so much in the way of time together. Spending this holiday season doing some things that we hope to find a way of incorporating as annual tradition, has been an incredible experience.

Thank you, Lana, for making this Isolated Christmas one to enjoy and be proud of. Who knows what next year will look like, but I know that regardless of the situation, we will find a way to make it memorable and full of fun activities.

We hope you’ve all been able to make some happy memories this year. Please know how much we appreciate all of you and we sincerely hope that 2021 brings you all great things.