Odds & ends

• I've been baking up a storm this past week. :)  I made my Grandma's Swedish spritz cookies (with a cookie press) and crinkle-top molasses cookies, as well as a shortbread cookie made with Skor  (toffee) bits. I got that recipe from a friend/former blogger, and have been dying to try it. (I don't think Skor bars are available in the States, or at least not widely? -- but they're similar to Heath bars. You can also use butterscotch chips, but I don't think the effect would be the same.) I've reserved a few dozen of each for me & dh to munch on over the holidays, but I'll be taking a good portion of the results to share with BIL & SIL and the nephews. 
• I received a notification earlier this afternoon that the region where we live, just outside of Toronto, will be going (back) into lockdown on Monday. :(  It was inevitable;  I think they were going to do it when Toronto did a few weeks ago (& they probably should have then) but the local politicians begged for an exception. The numbers haven't improved since then (and everyone from Toronto & the other nearby locked-down regions have been coming here to shop & eat in restaurants, since everything there is closed...) and so back to lockdown it is. :(   I'm pretty sure all non-essential retail businesses, restaurants & gyms will be closed (including the bookstore), except for curbside pickup and takeout food. The supermarkets & drugstores will stay open. 
• Thank goodness we're pretty well set in terms of Christmas presents for Little Great-Nephew... We didn't get any toys yet, but I have a couple of little tops/onesies I ordered from Baby Gap and three books, plus we'll give him money. The nephews & nieces-in-law will get money and baking (lol) and I got cards & gift bags the last time we were at the bookstore.  Dh & I were going to go shopping on our next bookstore & drugstore visits to fill stockings for each other;  guess we'll see how that goes. I'm sure it will be nuts everywhere today, tomorrow & Sunday, now that they've announced this. :(  
• We recently learned that the husband of one of dh's cousins is recovering from a bout of COVID-19.  He's the first family member that we're aware of who's had it. :(  
• We got to the series finale of "Downton Abbey" this week on CBC television -- and then started all over again with the first episode of season 1. (Yay!)  We didn't start watching until the very end of season 1/start of season 2, so there's still almost a full season of episodes we haven't seen. 
• It's been funny to see how different some of the characters were at the start of the series, compared to the end. Cora was a lot less likeable, for one thing. Mary & Edith were both wide-eyed ingenues (albeit still not getting along...!). Carson, Mrs. Hughes and Mrs. Patmore were all much more harsh with the underlings. 
• Speaking of Mrs. Patmore, some of you saw my blog tribute to her a few posts ago. :)  But you may have missed my later comment:  "I could also write a post singing the praises of Aunt Rosamund... welcoming all of them repeatedly into her home in London (even though they have their own vast mansion sitting there empty), giving up 10 months of her life to cover for Edith and take her to Europe to have her baby in secret. We were just watching the final regular episode of the final season yesterday (where Mary & Henry finally marry -- there's still the "Christmas special" which ended the series, with Edith & Bertie's New Year's Eve wedding) -- and there's a scene where Lord Grantham, Rosamund's brother, makes a comment to the effect of how Rosamund doesn't understand because she doesn't have children -- and she says very sharply, "No I don't have my own children, thank you for reminding me of that." Go, Rosamund! ;) "
• This article from the Guardian talks about the devastating impact the pandemic has had on some women's hopes for motherhood -- single women whose dating prospects have been considerably dampened by stay-at-home orders, couples whose planned fertility treatments were delayed or cancelled, lost jobs, etc.