Christmas And All That Jazz..

Well, here we are smack dab in the middle of what some call the "most wonderful time of the year" and some call "hell." However you feel about it, it's here and there's nothing we can do other than plow ahead and try to cross off a seemingly endless "to do" lists. For most, at the top of that list is decorating your house. I'm sure some people enjoy the act but I for one just like the finished product. If I could go to sleep and wake up to have my home transformed into a winter wonderland I would. Instead I find myself dragging out box after box of decorations that seem to have reproduced since I last saw them. Since I am in such a hurry to take everything down after Christmas I am guilty of throwing everything frilly nilly in any kind of box that I am able to find and in no particular order. "Ornaments with the table runners?" "Sure!!" " 6 miles of Christmas lights with the Lenox Rudolph wrapped ever so gently in a Kleenex?" "Why not." And so it goes. Suffice it to say I am greeted every late November with some broken items and some that I don't discover until Easter because there happened to be room in "that box." Somehow it gets done and I am happy for it and I enjoy sitting back and looking at how I few lights here and there, a tree and a few Santas just make things seem cozy.

The other part of Christmas is baking. I know I have touched on this subject before but I feel it needs to be mentioned again. I have baked no fewer than 15 dozen cookies over the past 2 wks and I am ashamed to say that you would be hard pressed to find one in this house. I know some people start baking in November and go on about how they have so much to do and where will they find the time and they have only made 10 loaves of some kind of fruit bread and 80 doz cookies but they haven't even begun to make the candy....WHAT??!! Do the other people in their house not eat? Do they not eat? I no sooner get 1 doz out of the oven and onto the cooling racks that I turn around only to find that 8 are gone and someone is pouring a glass of milk to wash them down. Long story short, I will be baking 2 days before Christmas and what doesn't make it, doesn't make it. So please, if you happen to be coming to my house for the holiday (and if so, please call first) bring me some baked goods because I know as sure as I'm sitting here that I will be lucky to have 2 chocolate chip cookies and a half a bag of Oreos left.