Day Ten - Christmas Lights, Protests and Decorating the Tree

Shoutout to my Dad for somehow finding this album on vinyl and it SLAPS.

A little extra time on my break between shows meant I got a lot done for school AND had time to update the blog!

I was feeling very sleepy on my way to the 5:30 show so Christmas tea is in hand to help me wake up a bit.

On my way to the show I saw a protest outside city hall - I stopped to see what it was about and the sign said “Freedom for East Turkistan”. Mental note to look into this and see what it was referring to.

And on the way home Nathan Phillips Square was all lit up - it looked way prettier than this photo gives credit for.

A little chocolate and wine and I’m ready to decorate the tree.

This nutcracker ornament feels even more special this year!

Ta da!! The tree is ready for Christmas!

After a late night of tree decorating and house cleaning I climbed into bed for a good’s night’s rest!

I hustled hard on Sunday so that I could have some fun in the evening. I started the day a bit later than I had intended - I turn all my volume levels down on my phone for the show and keep forgetting to turn them back on before bed…So I did not hear my alarm go off. Decided to try to get myself in the mood by whipping out one of my all time favourite Christmas albums - move over Michael Buble, it’s Hilary’s time to shine! I had a little bit of time before leaving to update the blog and get all caught up.

Tea in hand I set off for my next show and on the way I found a protest outside City Hall. I thought it might be a protest calling for a ceasefire but it was a protest for Turkistan. I’ve been reading a little bit about it to try to educate myself. I still have more learning to do but from what I’ve read they are protesting China’s occupation, genocide and colonization of Turkistan. Will be digging into this more but that’s what I’ve learned from my initial search. While it’s hard and scary to be living in the world with everything going on, I am so grateful that I am surrounded by people who care about people even in far places and their freedom and rights.

After my show it was really lovely to walk passed the downtown skating rink and see all the lights. They have indigenous medicine wheel incorporated into the “Toronto” sign and while it’s certainly not enough for reparations needed, I’ve been really valuing that there ahs been way more visibility of different aspects of indigenous culture. We still have a long way to go, but we’re moving in the right direction.

Once I was home I actually made myself a meal that was frozen and sat down and enjoyed it. It was nice to finally have time to cook a meal and not rush off to show immediately after. After I finished eating it was time to decorate the tree. I put on The Santa Clause (one of my all time favourites) and poured some wine and got to decorating. It was so nice to have an evening to myself to just do the things I wanted to do. I’ve felt really bogged down so it was nice to just have some time to relax and enjoy.

Once the tree was done I was on a roll and ended up cleaning my entire house until midnight so that I would have a nice tidy space to start my week. It was a lot of work but it felt so nice to have everything tidy and organized. Definitely needed that after that hectic week!

And the icing on the cake was that Dan and Phil finally posted a new Sims video so I climbed into bed and watched that before drifting off into a great sleep!

Til tomorrow!

-B