The stockings were hung by the chimney with care – in hopes that G-man would soon steam clean the carpet there. Yes, this is the weekend from hell. This is the weekend that we prepare for the visit from the Queen mother by cleaning the house from top to bottom. G-man’s mother and sister arrive on Friday morning so this weekend is dedicated to scrubbing walls and shampooing carpets. What a way to spend a weekend. We were up bright and early this morning at the crack of dawn to start steam cleaning the carpets. We don’t live in a dirty house, we just believe in having a house that could pass the white glove test when family comes to visit. We want them to believe that we live that way all of the time. Yeah, and they believe in Santa too!
It’s cookie time again. Yesterday’s cookie? White chocolate macadamia nut cookies. I would I could put smell-a-vision on my blog so you could smell them baking. Or better yet taste-a-vision. They are pretty damned good if I do say so myself. I also made peanut butter cookies with Hershey kiss centers yesterday. And then there was the Church Windows cookies I had to make for my daughter (by special request) and the orange poppy-seed cookies. It was a regular cookie factory in here yesterday. Now today I pay the price for it by having to take morphine and rub ben-gay all over my back. Sometimes when I am having a good back day I forget that I have limitations because of my failed spinal fusion. So I overdo and then I end up bed-bound for days because of my stupidity. You would think I would learn but I don’t. There is an upside to all of this. When I am laid up I don’t have to help with the carpet shampooing and I can lay around watching Christmas movies and knitting. And let me mention that a certain reader (Nancy) is very appreciated today as I am having a movie watching marathon with the movies she sent. You are the best Nancy!!!
I thought that I was completely finished with Christmas shopping. But then in looking over the list I saw that I had more for Sonny Boy than I had for my other two kids. So it was back to the stores. And then I thought that the gift I gave my daughter was hokey so I took it back and got her a much nicer gift. Much nicer actually meaning more expensive if you get my drift. I wish I could tell you what I purchased but I can’t. I don’t want to risk them coming on my blog and reading it. You know how nosy kids can be at this time of year, even if they are in their early twenties (except Sonny Boy who is 17). I can’t begin to tell you how busy the stores were on Friday and Saturday nights or how rude all of the shoppers were. But if you’ve been out shopping in the last week or two you know exactly what I am talking about. I had sympathy for the cashiers. They looked shell-shocked.
Friday night we took the opportunity to order our Christmas meat. Meat is a big thing in our household because of G-man’s barbecue addiction. He takes his meat very seriously. (That sounds like the beginning of a porno). He has decided to make a standing rib roast for Christmas dinner this year. I kept trying to lean him towards a less expensive alternative like crown pork roast or spiral sliced ham. But he wants standing rib roast so standing rib roast is what he gets. You don’t want to know the cost of such a thing for 9 people. Lets just say it probably equals what I spent on him for Christmas. In addition to Christmas dinner we also do a Christmas Eve buffet. There is going to be a lot of cooking in the Daisy household this holiday. The butcher loves us, believe me. I think we personally funded his new car.
I saw on the weather report last night that there is a 40% chance that we will have a white Christmas this year. I love it when we have a white Christmas. We have quite a few of them here in Indiana. Last year there was a major snowstorm that hit on Christmas Eve here. Luckily we flew out of here about an hour before it hit the side of the city that the airport is on. It had already hit the east side of the city and we were really cutting it close. Like I said it was a major snowstorm and it closed things down all over the Midwest. As we sat on the veranda eating breakfast by the ocean the next morning in Key West we watched the weather channel and they showed all of the airport closings and delays and such. We were among the last flights to have made it out of that airport that morning. Talk about being blessed! And speaking of snow, we are getting some today. It seems like the snow just won’t stop lately. We get snow flurries every couple of days lately. It doesn’t impede our driving so I don’t really mind it. And it is so pretty. At least for now. Once January comes I don’t want to see anymore of the white stuff!
I have a faith healer neighbor update for you. Remember the story of the woodstove they found in the dump five years ago and just recently installed since they haven’t had heat for the last 2 months. They have some sort of ventilation problem with their woodstove. We live a good distance away from them but when ever I walk outside my front door I can smell their wood smoke and it is the sort of smoke that makes your eyes burn and brings tears to your eyes. G-man said that the fire is smoking in the woodstove due to lack of proper ventilation and that is why it burns my eyes. It’s a horrible smell. So we expect the firemen to come any day and evacuate them after smoke inhalation. If it is this bad outside, I can’t imagine how bad it must be inside of their house. Like I promised, I’ll take pictures when the fire trucks come to put out their house fire.
