Time To Do My Own Thing

As of yesterday, all of the packages to be mailed to others are on their way, which is a good feeling. Not just because it means hopefully they will arrive to the recipients in time for Christmas Day, but because now it means that I can just do my own thing going forward. I've decided this must be how Santa feels once the sleigh is loaded up and ready to go. 😊

This evening and tomorrow we are [finally] going to decorate our tree. Every year, we get our tree pretty early in December, and at some point then The Tim puts the lights on it. And then it sits ... and sits ... until he feels like he has the energy to help me decorate it. Frankly it makes me nuts, but since he does enjoy getting it ready as much as I do, I'm not going to suddenly do it myself. He is just such a low energy person. Not that I am a whirlwind, but compared to him maybe I am! So we'll do some tonight after dinner, and finish tomorrow, and then finally we will be able to enjoy it! I can't wait.

This has been a busy week, with work, a dentist appt (thankfully just a cleaning), a haircut appt, and laundry. Today I have one more load of towels in the dryer, but the rest of the day is all mine. So I think I'll take a walk this afternoon, and I do need to clean the bathrooms, but I'm doing that this morning so it's done and over. 

I also plan to do some more knitting on The Tim's scarf. Here's a really poor photo of what I have at this point:

I've added in the fourth color (the camel shade at the top), so I'm actually moving along pretty well. This is a somewhat addictive knit, so I think I won't have any trouble finishing it by Christmas. It's also at the moment the main project I'm knitting, so it has that advantage as well.

I also want to check a couple of recipes to see if I need to get anything from the grocery store to begin some of my holiday baking. I don't make a lot, since it's just the two of us, but we both have some favorites and "specialties" so it's not the holidays without those.

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I have a funny story that I remembered the other day that I thought I'd share. For those of you who don't know, we are vegetarian. We have been for about 25 years. But when we first moved to Philadelphia, we still ate meat. We had a neighbor downstairs in our apartment building who was overall a very nice woman, but a militant vegan - you know, the type who feels no compunction about pointing out everyone's evil habits, etc. 

Well, like I said, she was overall nice and she had two cats of her own. We were going home to WV and Pittsburgh for Christmas visits with our families, and I asked her if she would mind coming upstairs twice a day to feed our cat Molly Bloom and our canary Edward Hopper. She was more than happy to do so.

When we returned, since we knew she wouldn't take any payment, we offered to take her out to dinner. We found a restaurant that would offer something she could eat, etc., and we all headed out there. She ordered some kind of elaborate salad, I'm pretty sure I ordered a pasta dish, and The Tim ordered roast chicken. Our food arrived, and as The Tim went to take his first bite, she said very pointedly, "I hope you know that your dinner used to have a face." And without missing a beat, he replied:

"Well, your lettuce used to have a head."

I cracked up and to her credit, so did the neighbor, and she said, 'Touche." The rest of the dinner went smoothly and pleasantly, and though she would still often annoy us with her criticism, she would also laugh every time we reminded her of this event.

I have to say that for my part, I'm impressed that The Tim had such a quick, perfect response. That's the kind of thing I'd come up with two weeks after the fact and wish I'd been able to say, you know?

I can't remember what led me to this memory, but I thought it might give you a chuckle.

I hope you have a good weekend, and find something to chuckle about - it is the holiday season after all, we should be enjoying ourselves!