Ten days 'til Christmas day. There's lots of things to be done and this weekend is a good time to wade in and get the lion's share of the shopping, baking, and decorating done. Of course it's also the time that the parties are happening. Last night we went to the Village gov't Christmas party because D. is a member of the planning board.

Today the National weather service is predicting a major winter storm for our area. The prediction is for 14" - 20" of snow to fall between 0300 Sunday morning and 0700 Monday morning. A real Nor'easter'. Yesiree!!!! My oh my, a real winter snow storm, yippee! After last year's snowless winter I'm really looking forward to this. I know, I know that makes me a certifiable nut case but hey I was born and raised in this neck of the woods and I love winter. If I didn't, I'd be moving to a warmer clime. Late me restate that; I love winter with snow! So we knew that today was the day to get to town and get the chores done so that when the storm hits we can hunker down and stay inside and off the roads. We'll decorate the tree, I'll do the Christmas cards, listen to my 6000 Christmas cds, while D. gets her baking underway.

Tonight we are going to another party, this one at the Wright's spectacular gala. I'll try to remember to take some pictures of Bonnie's magnificent Christmas trees. Yes, I said trees. She has a tree in every room; decorated, like right out of a house and garden magazine. They really are beautiful and if I stay out of the wine long enough and keep my lips sealed for a bit I'll get some pics to share with you later.


So, anyway, back to the impending storm. This morning I was a little slow getting started; my head was in a state of painful confusion from over imbibing in the vin rouge last night. Now before you get all indignant and such, remember that three glasses of wine is over my limit. So I dillied (or is that dallied?) longer than usual this morning. D. was ready to motor to the 'burg before I had shed my jams and showered or what-have-you.


Good, so now on with the story. Usually around the holidays one or more unusual things happen to shed a aura of comedy to the retelling in days and years to come.
Before She left, D. dragged the remnants of last year's Christmas center piece up from the cellar and left it on the table right next to the door. Then she called up to me while I sat computing and waiting for the aspirin to kick in and asked if I would mind dropping the the center piece off at Basta's to be refurbished. Since Basta's is always my first stop shop for Christmas shopping I agreed to do this. About a half hour after D. left, I was ready to make my own departure. The temp outside was 3 degrees F. so I made sure to dress in the appropriate warm duds. I grabbed my camera and stuck it in my pocket and simultaneously ascertained that my mitts were in the pockets. Good to go says I to no one but myself. I opened the door, turned the lock from the inside, closed the door and sauntered up to the garage. Upon my arrival at the man door to the garage I reached into my left hand coat pocket to retrieve the key ring containing the garage key, only to find that no such key ring was present, Worriedly, I tentatively reached into my right hand coat pocket to see if my car keys were there-in. All the while knowing that all my keys were in my dress coat that I had worn last night to the village party, and said coat was lying behind locked doors in the closet.


rel had locked himself out of his house and didn't have a spare key. Well, isn't that a fine how-do-you-do?
There is a spare key to the garage in a secure hiding place, so I did get into the garage, which thankfully is heated. I called D. with my cell phone hoping that she had dallied in the Post Office, perhaps had stopped to get gas and met John Perretta at the windmill and he had talked with her for a "few minutes" and that some how she wouldn't have gotten that far from home yet. Yeah, right; she was 14 miles away in the middle of Walmart just starting her shopping. "Try Lynnette, she has a key," says D.. "Ok" says I. Over I go, knock and ring the doorbell and the dogs answer. I wait a few and surmise that perhaps Lynnette and Andy have gone shopping and have taken Andy's truck. I then take a walk to the post office and purchase the requisite amount of stamps for my Christmas cards. On the way home, I notice that Andy's garage door was open, so I beeline back to their house and voila, they are home. In fact Lynnette had been home when I went over the first time, but she was just getting out of the shower and by the time she made it down to the door I was gone, gone, gone.

Eureka!!! I'm in the house and retrieve the keys and am on the road with only a half hour delay.

First stop: Basta's Flower shop.

I gave my dilapidated Christmas past center piece to the girls and arranged to pick up the refreshed version next Wednesday, the 19th. Joe, the proprietor, ascending the cellar stairs into the shop, espies moi and exclaims; "Bob, I want to thank you. Since Jane has started reading your blog she doesn't have time to pester me." Jane comes out from the back and tells me that yes, ever since Marion had given her my blog addy she has been a regular reader. What a nice surprise that was to hear. Although in retrospect I should have known that Bonnie would have shared it with Marion and so on and so forth. We chatted long enough so that the girls had ample time to Christmas-wrap my purchases and saved me the trouble of doing it Christmas eve. And since I'm on call both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day that was an enormous favor and helps de-stress my Christmas....Thanks girls!
The next stop was Hackett's and what to my wondering eyes did appear, but my wife and the editor of our local newspaper. My dear wife asked me to take her to lunch right there in the store's cafe. After a delightful repast she left for home and I did some additional shopping.












On my return trip home I stopped by a neighbors house to snap a pic of his two snowmen and yes I did hum Frosty while I was there.

And then I sang Oh Christmas Tree as I retrieved our live and disproportioned tree from the back porch and brought in 'round to the front and dragged it through the front door and into the living room:
We'll leave it standing in the corner to thaw out in hopes that the branches will droop down (they never do) and fill in the inevitable bare spots that are inherent with live trees....and isn't that what makes them special? Hey at least I didn't pick one ten feet tall for a eight foot ceiling, and hasn't that been done before?

Now I'm off to make myself presentable for Bonnie and Dick's party.