I had a very short week at work as my client's family came in early. I got her grocery shopping done (yes I was in the grocery store again) and she was ecstatic. I could not get everything she wanted, but she appreciated the substitutions. Being off, enabled me a few extra hours to get things done. I also had dinner/lunch with dear friends and cherished every moment.
I have to say, what would a holiday be without a funny mishap from me? So instead of a life with papa story, it's a life with Marie story. Last week I prepared from scratch a huge pot of sauce for lasagna. On Friday I prepped everything for easy baking yesterday. Well, Xmas morning turn the oven on to preheat and it sparked and died. Mind you, it was used on Friday by my BFF (Patti) to bake a cake. So after a moment of panic, we remembered we had a key to our friend Mary's house and she was at her nephews house for brunch. I gather up this huge pan (enough for 10) and zip over to her house...key does not work on both locks. Oh well, I head home and say no worries I will cook it another day. Patti says, we can throw it in the microwave (OMG that's for leftovers). I say no...this is the first year I made no boil noodles. My BFF says, I know that key works and goes back to Mary's. She found the door it works on and called me to come back over. I hung out at Mary's until done and drove it back home for serving. Patti saved the day. It was delicious and there is enough leftover for quite a few meals. It was even funnier if you could have seen me on the floor last night getting the model/serial number for the oven (never in a convenient location). Oh well, part has been ordered; a memory was created and a few laughs were had.
I think this is the first holiday season in a while where I did not feel rushed/stressed to get everything done. I made life easy on myself and mailed one large envelope to my sister's family filled with individually wrapped gift cards (there were quite a few from several places and different monetary amounts) and Xmas cards. I told them to make a game out of it and swap with each other as wanted. Hopefully, they got a kick out of it. I have two boxes left to be mailed to out of state friends and we agreed nothing til after the holiday rush.
This past week I finished reading: "OPEN HOUSE" by Elizabeth Berg (Oprah's Book Club). Interesting story about a woman going through a divorce. I watched the documentary "ALL MADDEN" about former coach and football announcer John Madden - excellent! I still have a few Xmas movies to catch up on (thank goodness for the DVR).
The daily and wacky holidays for the week...provides something lighthearted to think about:
December 26
Boxing Day - date can vary
National Candy Cane Day
December 27
Make Cut Out Snowflakes Day
National Fruitcake Day
December 28
Card Playing Day
December 29
Pepper Pot Day
December 30
Bacon Day
National Bicarbonate of Soda Day
December 31
Make Up Your Mind Day
New Year's Eve
Unlucky Day
Month: JANUARY
National Bath Safety Month
- National Blood Donor Month
- National Braille Literacy Month
- National Hobby Month
- Hot Tea Month
- National Oatmeal Month
- National Soup Month
2nd Week Letter Writing Week
January 1
National Hangover Day
New Year's Day
I am going to leave it here for today. Take care. Get vaccinated/boostered, wear a mask, wash your hands, and stay safe. Chat soon. Marie
"How many lessons of faith and beauty we should lose, if there were no winter in our year!" - Thomas Wentworth Higginson
"Winter is a season of recovery and preparation." - Paul Theroux
"Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand and for a talk beside the fire: it is the time for home." - Edith Sitwell