I just got back from a completely delightful trip to the grocery store, which is not the way I expected to start this sentence when I set out. One thing that was delightful is that although the children have no school, I brought no children with me. This is a state of affairs that felt like it would take FOREVER to arrive, and it DID take forever, but now it is here.
Another delightful thing is that we are having an icy drizzle, and the store had stationed a nice high-school-aged-boy employee to stand in the parking lot with a huge umbrella and say “May I walk you in?” Completely charming. I wish I had taken him up on it for the pure charm factor, rather than laughing with surprise and saying “No, thank you! But thank you!” But he didn’t ask me until I was about ten strides from the store, and it seemed like I could make it from there.
Another delightful thing is that it was jusssst crowded enough to give the pleasant feeling of holiday bustle and social unity, while not being crowded to the point where I start thinking of other people as nothing but slow, irritating barriers to success. And while I was paused waiting for a classic plump sweet elderly lady to carefully select some cheese, my eye wandered to a display of THESE:
The cat gives a poor impression of scale somehow. In person, these look like “Wow, you could give that spectacular bundle as a gift to an entire office staff” gifts; with the cat, they look like, “Hm, well, they’re smaller than a cat, so.” Each bundle has one each of the Lindt Santas and Lindt bears we put in stockings, AND a Christmas-tree-shaped box with 15 assorted Lindt truffles in it, AND a pretty red bag of 12 Lindt truffles, AND a pretty red be-bowed box with, presumably, more Lindt truffles in it (I can see the nutrition labels for the other box and the bag, but not for this box), AND about two handfuls of assorted Lindt truffles scattered around to cover the false bottom. Plus the whole thing is in a nice sturdy red box that looks like it would be great for saving postcards. So this would make a nice Big Gift OR it would be easy to split it up among various recipients. The usual price is $25, but it was marked down to $9.99 so I bought two. Thank you, endearingly-slow cheese-choosing lady! I never would have noticed them otherwise!
Now I have the fun of deciding what to do with them. (That is how I am spinning the “I didn’t actually have a use for these so probably shouldn’t have bought them at all, but I have a very difficult time resisting a good sale.”) I was thinking one would make a fun surprise gift to a neighbor or a friend or an office staff. Or maybe I could just eat them myself. Or one of each! Or break both up and keep some things and give some things! Fun decision!
Another delightful thing is that I bought our Christmas Eve dinner, which made me feel accomplished and Ready For Christmas. Our family celebrates on Christmas Eve (apparently this is a holdover from our Dutch roots, or possibly from our too-busy-on-Christmas-morning pastor/farmer roots), and when I was growing up we always had soup for dinner: we’d have started in on the candy with our afternoon Christmas stockings and wouldn’t be very hungry, and yet we needed SOMETHING sustaining before the Christmas Eve service, the candy-eating during gift-opening, and the late-night worstenbroodjes (Dutch version of pigs-in-blankets).
And so when I grew up I made soup for my family, too. And a problem emerged: I was the only one who liked soup and also could eat it without making a huge mess. Last year I hit upon what I think we’ll probably do from now on: I put out cheese, crackers, apple slices, clementine segments, grapes, yogurt, and nuts, and just let everyone go at it while I had a bowl of soup. And the grapes I got this year are GREAT grapes, so that’s happy too.
The final delightful thing is that right before I left for the store, my lying liar children all denied being the one to make a mess, which is a situation I find intensely frustrating. And instead of continuing with the interrogation/lecture protocol I’ve employed many times with zero success, I said that I was leaving for the grocery store and that I had left a roll of paper towels by the mess, and that whoever had done it should just clean it up before I got home—that I didn’t need to know WHO had done it, I just didn’t think it was fair that I should have to clean it up. And when I got home, it had been cleaned up. Not quite as good as “Mother, I cannot tell a lie: _I_ made that mess, and I grieve for the sorrow my delayed confession has caused you,” but a victory nevertheless.
I was ALREADY in a good mood, having just come home with my children to an absolutely clean house (thanks to the house cleaner my husband arranged to come prior to his family coming over); having just had a yummy breakfast with kids who ate and didn’t fight – but reading this delightful post just put me over the top! You are so funny and wonderful and I love you!
Love the paper towel story. Sounds like a win to me!
Did you ever find out who had cleaned up the mess? Because I have to say, in a situation like this, I know with some degree of certainty that my middle child would be the one who cleaned it up, whether or not she was the one who made it. She likes to be helpful and she really doesn’t like it when I’m angry, so she’d clean it up to help me/please me rather than because it was actually her responsibility. Is that a good thing, or a bad thing? Not sure about that one.
No—I’d told them I wouldn’t ask, and I didn’t. But I don’t have any children of the “clean up someone else’s mess to keep the peace / please others” variety, so I strongly suspect that justice was served and it was the culprit who cleaned it up.
I don’t understand how I have survived thirty plus years with no late-night worstenbroodjes. I intend to resolve this situation soon.
“I start thinking of other people as nothing but slow, irritating barriers to success.”
THAT. I just realized THAT has been my problem my whole life!!! Loved this post. You sound very happy. :) Merry Christmas!!
HA! Chris beat me to it – I was thinking the same thing!
YES! I usually don’t think of them in such kind terms; maybe this will be my New Year’s resolution…
Lovely, cozy post. It was like a cup of Christmas cheer!
You’re the best. I so thoroughly enjoy all of your posts, but this one was especially great, because I really needed a little ‘positivity boost’ right now! :)
Aw yay I’m so glad you’re feeling happy and Christmasy!
A good portion of my state has been without power for the last couple days due to an ice storm, and my parents/in-laws are all affected. Miraculously, my block has power. However, a couple hours ago I received the news that they’ve been notified not to expect power back until SATURDAY and therefore it makes logical sense that DH and I should host Christmas/Christmas Dinner.
All I can say is thank goodness I work from home and DH has tomorrow off because we have some MAJOR cleaning and shopping to do!
And if the power DOES come back on before Wednesday we are still hosting it here because there’s no way I’m putting this much work into the house and not showing it off. Cleaning for own pleasure is not a thing.
That last sentence made me snort-laugh out loud. SO TRUE.
That does sound like a good outing. I’m about to face the store one last time pre-Christmas, so instead of going out and just doing it, I’m instead checking blogs. :)
Merry Christmas, Swistle.
(nstead, instead, instead) :)
This post was better than hot chocolate with whipped vodka for improving my mood.
Also, did you enjoy the soup when very young or did you grow up to like it better? And do you do the turkey/ham “traditional” Christmas dinner too on Christmas Day?
I THINK I liked the soup, but a lot of my earlier memories might have been written over by later memories! We didn’t have the usual Christmas Day dinner: just the worstenbroodjes on Christmas Eve night. But now we have a relatively recent (i.e., started well after my brother and I were grown-ups) tradition of Christmas Day baked macaroni and cheese and ham.
Thanks! My husband is in an industry that is very busy around the holidays but he is very wedded to his childhood tradition if big Christmas Day meal (basically Thanksgiving part 2) I am not especially because he is working. So we are looking for some new traditions to start.
That IS delightful! What a wonderful afternoon.
Also, I think maybe we could create a cat-based measuring system. Like, “How big was the box?” “Oh, it was six cats big.” “That’s a big box.”
This is an excellent idea.
This was a delightful post to read! It made me feel all cheery!