Christmas is coming!

It’s time to do all the things that normal people do for Christmas. The first thing I found in my “It’s Not That Much Fun Doing Normal Stuff” book was baking cookies. So I pulled out my yellow bowl I got at my wedding shower 500 years ago, and started in with the cookies. I was whistling “Jingle Bells” as I sifted flour into the yellow bowl. But much to my surprise, my sifter broke into a million pieces right into the flour! I quit whistling and started swearing. That went on for a while until I realized that something had to be done. I didn’t have enough flour to start over again, so I dumped all the damaged flour into a sieve and shook it back into the cookie makings. I got all of the metal pieces of the sifter out of the way, and started all over again. But I definitely need a new sifter – the sieve isn’t really modern enough and takes quite a bit of time. I think the sifter was from my wedding shower 500 years ago also. Things just don’t last, do they?

After the cookies were done, I had to go to the store and also stop at the pet store and liquor store. I got some bird seed for my little birds on my deck and also for the squirrel that appears every day. I throw a milk carton at him, but he never learns. He just comes back for more. From there I went to the liquor store for some vodka as I’m having friends over for Bloody Marys. I don’t buy liquor very much as I drink cheap wine. But I asked the clerk to help me. She pointed to the very expensive bottles way up on the top shelf – I decided those were for the very tall. On the middle shelf were the mid-priced bottles that I recognized. Then she pointed to the bottom shelf where the really inexpensive bottles were. I couldn’t bend over that far to read them, so I picked one from the middle row. I wonder if there are many little people living around here who can find the bottles on the bottom shelf without any trouble. I’ve lived here for quite a while and have never seen any little people.

After doing all that, I looked in my book again and it mentioned bathrooms and toilets – pointing out that they should be clean when company stops by. But what if you have “drop in” company that you don’t expect? What it means is that your toilets should be clean ALL THE TIME! What a drag. So I got busy and washed the bathroom floors and cleaned the toilets. But the company isn’t coming for over a week so that means I’ll have to keep on doing it until they come. And then can I stop? I wish I had never looked at that book and started doing all those things. I could have just watched re-runs of Law&Order all day instead of the other stuff I did. I hope I got all the metal parts out of the flour – guess we’ll find out when the company comes.

In the picture, I’m baking cookies in the yellow bowl with Reggie, Harry and Hayden. This was several years ago – Hayden is now in college. Reggie and Hayden are Rita’s kids and Harry is Teri’s. I guess Harry is giving instructions . . . probably wants to lick the spoon. I always lick the spoon but no one ever sees me. I do it before the cookies are even done. I guess that’s why I never seem to have as many cookies as I should have!