Missing Bumble

Here is a picture of my Christmas cookies. I see pictures everyday in the checkout lane at Safeway of beautiful, decorated Christmas cookies. The red of Santa's suit is a perfect fire engine red, and you can make out a perfect Cupid's bow mouth and sparkling black frosting eyes. Well, I will have none of that! I will decorate my Christmas cookies with a strange chartreuse frosting and even though they were cut out with cookie cutters, I dare you to guess what shape they're supposed to be. The single cookie here is, in fact, Santa. There is no mouth or sparkling eyes. There is no discernible suit or smart black boots. My Santa cookie is a big blob of off purple. Is this appetizing? Hell, no. Is it yummy. Yes, quite. Who makes those perfect cookies? Is it that same woman who haunts me? The one with time on her hands and a dust free house? It would take me half an hour to decorate one flipping cookie that precisely. Who HAS that much time? Not me. I could use the excuse that my cookies look this way because I'm so busy this year but honestly, my cookies always look like this.

Bumble. I have to say I've been a bit down from my non-decorating Christmas. Here's the deal....my house is scattered. There is no floor in the living room. The furniture is in a big fat pile in the center of the room. I have 27 piles of paperwork and it's all covered by an inch and a half of dry wall dust. My Christmas boxes are packed in the attic. I have no tree, no ornaments, and no Bumble. Bumble is the abdominal snowman in Rudolph the Red nosed Reindeer. The Christmas cartoon with Burl Ives voice and the elf who really wants to be a dentist. The misfit toys for cripes sake!! So, I always have a little Bumble scene out, along with a Fimo clay Nativity I made two decades ago and some Styrofoam ornaments my mom made. This year - nada. Here is a Bumble shot from a few years ago. How can you not be filled with Christmas joy just gazing at Bumble's foolish crazy grin?!


Oh. and I've got a cold. I have drainage and sinus pain and I make gross noises and I cough. Yuckkkk! And, I haven't even written my Christmas letter yet. For five years I have written a superb Christmas letter. I may have given up Bumble this year but the letter gets written and mailed this weekend. What happened to November?!?!

Okay, I think I've complained enough for one blog. Now I'll tell you some of the things I love. I love breathing. I love roly polies. I love my man and I love my son. I love morning coffee with cream, and reading the paper. I love that I have a bed. I love prime rib and Yorkshire pudding. I love this temporary wreck of a house. I love my town. I love the pumpkin loaf at Starbucks. I love my family. I love Christmas even though the Grinch of circumstance took away everything, even the roast beast. I love Trader Joe's chocolate almond bar. I love clean bathrooms. I love having a day off. I love getting on a train. I love the necklace my dad made me years ago out of weird dried oranges that he drilled holes through and strung on fishing line. I love to get in the car on a cold day and turn the heater up real high. I love my friends. I love Bumble and I will just have to see him next Christmas.

Moving into winter

My house is a mess. I don't mean that it's a little dusty (which would be normal) or that the furniture doesn't match (normal too). No, I mean that the interior doors are mostly all off, sheet rock is visible and very few electrical outlets have covers. We've been having a remodel done, pushing out the back of the house 10 feet, and it's been two months and I wannnnt mmyyyy hooussee bbbaack (simulated whine). It's going to be very cool when it's finished....it just seem like it's never going to be finished.

Starbucks is the same. You know those sleeves? The cardboard holders that go around the cup? We have to put them on the large (venti) drinks but often folks ask for them with the smaller sizes. I call those people "sleeve wienies" because, come ON, those drinks are not that hot. And it wastes paper. Damn tree killers. So, the other day I went in and got a small (tall) drink and walked out and MAN, that thing was hot. I refuse however, to admit that I needed a sleeve. I did not (plus, some people get them for cold drinks and THAT really pisses me off).

Miscellaneous checklist of my life.....Check out my last post if you live in my town - the Coconino Center for the Arts is having it's holiday sale this weekend and Barry's teapot is on the flyer. I give my final in my community college classes on Monday and then I'm done teaching for a month. I just received six bottles of wine in the mail (winewoot.com)! The chickens are NOT laying much as it's cold and dark here. I have a car (Honda Pilot) that seats 8 but there is only room for the driver right now because my car is FILLED with junk (chairs, Christmas gifts, books, etc) that don't fit in the house right now. Thanksgiving was nice.

Actually, I'm feeling a bit flat. You know that feeling? When you don't feel ungrateful but you're not really feeling grateful either? When you aren't being active or dynamic? When there's no great book on your nightstand, and your kitchen is too cluttered to cook a fun dinner? When your creativity bone seems to be broken, or at least sprained? Yeah, that's me right now. Ebb and flow. Ebb. And. Flow.