Catching Up

 It has been a long busy time. This is the week of the toy giveaway. From all signs, it will be a great thing. Someone sent me 3 sleds. People are volunteering. We made front page of the paper. That attracted even more attention. Two people are donating entire doll collections. A woman who owned a book store is donating 3 totes of brand new childrens' books. Bus drivers are collecting. Churches. It seems impossible that it is coming together so perfectly, but it is. 

I screwed up. A woman stepped up and offered to make an eye-catching poster. She did, and it was a fine poster. With a typo that became a Very. Big. Deal. 

She overstepped. She did not want to be a team player. She portrayed this as a 'her and I' project. It isn't. This is the work of so many different hands. By the time I realized what was happening, there were really upset people. A very low blow had been taken on Facebook. The post was removed, but it was a slap.

So, for a time I was standing in the middle of two angry camps. I felt pretty badly. In the end, the woman who overstepped stepped away, angrily raging that she was done. I tried talking it through with everyone. Both sides like me just fine, but they refuse to work with each other. 

A more experienced person would have seen what was happening before all the mad. I learned a valuable lesson.

I went to my son's family for four days. The Nutcracker was so sweet. I loved it. The girls were so proud of their hard work, and rightly so.

The next day was the Christmas pageant. The oldest was Mary. The youngest was part of the angelic host, but she opted out at the last minute. She'd had enough of the big stage. 

One moment that stands out: I got my son and daughter out of the house for a date. They've been going full steam for weeks now, plus they are getting over a two week bout of virus. Total burn out. 

So the girls and I were having a cozy evening at home. Square in the middle of The Santa Clause, the youngest began screaming. It scared the wits out of me. She had her face buried in the sofa, screaming hysterically, but finally she raised her face to me and THE CHILD HAD CLIPPED A BLUEY HAIRCLIP TO HER UPPER LIP!

I was expecting blood. I was braced for the very worst. This sight was so unexpected that I burst out laughing. Which hurt her feelings terribly. I unclipped her lip and cuddled her while murmuring apologies. She got over it, thankfully.

I headed home Monday. I stopped at their Mennonite discount grocery. That place is huge. I stocked up on good cheese. It will last for the winter. A product that Tim uses sells for $6.99 there. To buy it here, it is $29.99. I got 4 boxes of that. Ground pork for $1.75 a pound. We use it to mix with the ground venison, which is too lean otherwise. My Bel Vitas. 6 boxes, 99 cents each. Smoked ham slices for soup. Before it was done, I had $174. and a very full cooler in the back. Tim was very impressed with my haul. 

Today we mailed out our daughter's package to the UK. I think it will be a nice thing to open on Christmas morning. 

We grabbed the few things we needed in town, got our flu, covid and shingles vaccines and headed back home where we ground 25 lbs of hamburger, packaged it. Vacuum sealed it and got it in the freezer. 

It was a full on day. I made a quick stir fry for supper, and as I was cooking  Tim stood up suddenly and said "Aunt Anna has died." She is the last of his mother's siblings to go. The end of a generation. She died a few days short of her 99th birthday. Sad news. 

It was below zero here this morning.

We are watching the American Revolution (Ken Burns) on PBS. So excellent. It rips any romantic notions of either side away, to be sure.