{"id":5142,"date":"2023-12-31T19:08:56","date_gmt":"2023-12-31T19:08:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zuschlag.us\/?p=5142"},"modified":"2024-08-30T00:12:17","modified_gmt":"2024-08-30T00:12:17","slug":"2023-christmas-letter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zuschlag.us\/?p=5142","title":{"rendered":"2023 Christmas Letter"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

J A N U A R Y<\/p>\n

The new year dawned with a sense of unease.\u00a0 My real estate business was still in overdrive, but everyone\u2019s fear of a looming recession and empty cupboards kept me hustling to make deals happen. \u00a0And happen they did.\u00a0 \u00a0It was not only my \u2018best\u2019 January EVER \u2013 it was, honestly, my best month EVER. Record sales that made me feel like we might just have enough of a cushion to weather the higher interest rate climate threatening to bring it all tumbling down.<\/p>\n

But in between wrangling buyers and sellers, Keith and I were able to start slowly moving into our new house.\u00a0 Our floors were finally sanded, polished, and sealed to perfection, and I drove Keith slightly mad with my insistence that nothing, I mean nothing<\/em>, dare touch them.\u00a0 He thinks my obsession with shoes off inside the house is overkill, but every delivery man, mover, or service provider not only complied with my request, but most of them had already brought their own little booties with them.\u00a0 And I\u2019m not the only one who\u2019s fully Japanese in this regard<\/a>.\u00a0 Be forewarned, you come to visit us, you get to choose which color disposable slippers you will wear.\u00a0 But you will wear them!<\/p>\n

The house was (and still is, as of this writing) missing all the \u2018fun\u2019 stuff (crown mouldings, wainscotting, door and window trims, baseboards, etc) so it doesn\u2019t make sense to cram the house full of stuff that we\u2019d only have to move around as we completed all that work (and, God forbid!, scratch our floor in the process!)<\/p>\n

Lucky for us, we have no \u2018stuff.\u2019\u00a0 But you can\u2019t just move into a new house and live out of cardboard boxes.\u00a0 Well, actually you can (and we do), but we still needed somewhere to sleep.\u00a0 So the first order of business was to buy some beds.\u00a0 This was more complicated than it first appeared. \u00a0\u00a0Much like everything else, bed buying has moved to the internet.\u00a0 Yet I was a bit leery of ordering some bed that pops out of a box and then when you don\u2019t like it you have to somehow pop it back into a box and send it back.\u00a0\u00a0 So, I very much wanted to try them out first before any unboxing.\u00a0 Now 20, or even 10 years ago, that was not a problem.\u00a0 There was a Mattress Warehouse or Mattress Discounters in every little strip mall in every miserable little retail area around the country.\u00a0 Today not so much.\u00a0 They still exist, but you now have to drive three hours in traffic just to find one.\u00a0\u00a0 The other thing to discover was that what were once fully individual brands are now just \u2018product lines\u2019 for two or three consolidated manufacturers. \u00a0Even so, there\u2019s still a lot to choose from \u2013 foam, memory foam, cooling gels, springs, springless, firmness levels, etc. \u00a0It\u2019s overwhelming.\u00a0\u00a0 But after a lot of sleeping around (in mattress stores) I narrowed it down to several possibilities.\u00a0 The next hurdle was to get Keith to agree to go with me and test out the beds. \u00a0\u201cWhy do I have to do this?\u201d<\/em> he whined, \u201cthey\u2019re all the same!\u00a0 Just get one!\u201d<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0 But I\u2019ve been married for 10 years now and I know how this story ends.\u00a0\u00a0 I\u2019d buy the one I liked and every day for the next 20 years I\u2019d hear \u201cI don\u2019t know why you bought such a crappy\/lumpy\/soft\/hard, uncomfy mattress!\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 <\/em>So I dragged his butt into the shops and made him lie down on all three top choices and pick one.\u00a0\u00a0 He did, and then I bought the other one I liked better anyway.<\/p>\n

After mattresses then it was a matter of sheets and pillows and comforters.\u00a0 Again there are endless on-line options and variety of choices, colors, firmness, etc.\u00a0 But somehow (well, honestly, after a few mistakes) we wound up with the best of all things.\u00a0 The comforters are the ONE thing that I\u2019ve ever bought from a Chinese manufacturer that I would buy again.\u00a0 They\u2019re a hypo-allergenic down alternative that are just a lightweight cloud of comfort and warmth.\u00a0\u00a0 They are the best!\u00a0\u00a0 Keith, yes, actually Keith<\/em> had already determined that Tencel sheets are the softest and most comfortable.\u00a0\u00a0 And he\u2019s right. \u00a0So that\u2019s what we got for all bedrooms.\u00a0 Not only sustainable, but each wash renders them even softer and more comfortable than before.\u00a0\u00a0 So now we sleep in a meringue of bedding comfort that makes it such a pleasure to crawl into bed, and such a hardship to crawl out of.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Perhaps that\u2019s the reason this year has been so calm and relaxing – I basically want to stay in bed all day (no lie!).<\/p>\n

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