This week, the US announced a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics in protest of human rights violations (athletes will still attend). Angela Merkel stepped down as Germany's Chancellor after 16 years. The Justice Department is suing Texas over its redrawn Congressional map, arguing that it was drawn to, "deny or abridge the rights of Latino and Black voters." Inflation rose 6.8 percent in November, the fastest rate since June 1982. The Senate finally reached an agreement to raise the debt ceiling. Tornadoes ripped through at least six states, killing more than 70 people and destroying at least one town in Kentucky. Former Senator and Presidential Candidate Bob Dole died at age 98. Fox News had its 50-foot artificial Christmas tree set afire outside its New York City office by a mentally ill man.
The world reached 270.0 million cases and 5.3 million deaths of which the US accounted for 50.8 million case and 818,000 deaths. 239 million (72 percent) Americans have received at least one does of the vaccine and 202 million (61 percent) are fully vaccinated. New York City announced a vaccine mandate for all private employers.
Sunday, Nora and I had our annual tea with Jacqui – where Nora for the first time, ordered from the adult selections – followed by my getting a pedicure with friends, as Owen joined the teens at Meeting to complete his volunteer work for the Shoebox project and provide resources for the homeless in our own version of a Tale of Two Households. On Monday, Allen and I spent 4.5 hours selecting paint colors for the house interior while Jacqui and John enjoyed cake and the company of one of Jacqui's close friends. On Wednesday, we finally had our neighbors (of 10 months) over for a fire and some mulled wine. Thursday, Allen met up with his co-workers for a holiday happy-hour. And the rest of the week was spent prepping for the crush of holiday happenings next week...
(So see all of this week's pictures, click here.)
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