My Favorite Things: The Stocking

Christmas is different now that my kids are mostly grown up and purchase their own fun things. I have attempted to simplify gift-giving, and stay away from the commercial side of the holidays as much as I can. There is one person, however, that loves getting gifts all year 'round and who finds joy in the smallest things, and that is my younger daughter, Cecilie.

Cec is having difficulty with a couple of her siblings and doesn't come to our house much at this point. I have gotten in the habit of visiting her on her turf in Lake City (Seattle), and that has been a great way of developing our one-on-one relationship. But as Christmas was coming, I hoped she would put hard feelings aside and come over anyway. Well, as it turned out, she visited a friend in Poulsbo for Christmas Eve and Christmas, and asked if I would pick her up Christmas night. I think she would have come to our house, but she didn't want to spend the night, and it was getting late, and I had real concerns about her marching up her street super-late at night, carrying a bunch of money and loot. So, I picked her up from Poulsbo and brought her to the Bainbridge Island ferry in the pouring rain at 8:55 PM.

I did, however, bring her gifts and stocking. She opened the gifts , which she had known about ahead of time, in the car. Then she started on the stocking. “I just love stockings! We should have Birthday Stockings, too.” The envelopes were the first things out. Each envelope was carefully opened and each card read and commented on. And the money was verbally appreciated. She was happily surprised by the generosity of the relatives who gave cash. Then she opened the gifts in the stocking and enjoyed each and every thing that came out, one by one. She was especially pleased with the pen and pocket calendar (which I had gotten free from a pharmacy), index cards for her recipe box, a useful Hari Krishna cookbook (vegetarian, of course), gourmet black licorice, and pistachios.

She made her ferry in plenty of time, and was home by 11, with all the things she needed to carry with her.

What a joy it was to see and be with Cecilie as she savored a little bit of Christmas with me. This was perhaps the highlight of my holiday-time in 2010.

Pet Peeves

A few things have been bugging me lately and I just have to ge them out.

Have you ever sat at a red light, in your car, and noticed that a car is waiting at 2 other corners and no one is going through any light in any direction? So annoying.

How about this: You get out the milk and there's about a tablespoon left in the carton. There is more milk, but the person who finishes the milk is supposed to rinse the carton and traverse the 6 feet to the back door and drop the carton into the recycling can. Does a tablespoon of remaining milk constitute an empty container? No. Should the person have overfilled his cereal bowl with that extra tablespoon of milk? Yes.

Tailgaiters.

So, I went to a store in the mall where I was to treat myself to my favorite (naturally flavored) lip balm, which I buy about once a year. I had a coupon for a free thing, and the saleswoman suggested an "aromatherapy" item. I expressed that I was sensitive to artificial fragrance (which the store is FULL OF), and she assured me this would work for me. I got the aromatherapy product. Third ingredient: Fragrance. Sore throat from using said product. Pet peeve #1: Dumb salespeople. Pet peeve #2: I listened to her instead of reading the label.

Certain gross topics spoken of at the dinner table. Not cool!

Excessive talking during choir practice.

Other people's super-loud snoring.

What is a pet peeve of yours??