Only in December

I had to work late yesterday because traffic was really bad yesterday morning on the way to work. We were going to try to bring in the magnificent Christmas tree last night, so I was rushing to make up the time and still get home at a decent hour. So I decided to brave the deer and take a backroad. The traffic is usually lighter on those because people fear the deer. And there aren't stoplights, which means I can get 20 miles in 30 minutes vs. 45.

And then life interfered. As I'm rolling up the road, following the car in front of me closely so as to make sure the deer understand it is NOT a good idea to come my way, up ahead, I hear the wail of a fire truck. "Great", I think to myself, an accident. I'm never going to get home." I see the truck and it pulls out in front of the cars. And another follows him. And who was on that second truck? Only the right jolly old elf himself! It wasn't supercold last night, so it was probably pretty fun to be riding up there. He did slow us down a bit.

HTB called to ask where I was, and I had to tell him that Santa Claus was holding up the line of cars. He probably didn't believe me, but I swear I'm telling the truth, LOL.

We got the tree in the house. No one cursed. HTB was patient with me while I stumbled along behind with the tree up through the yard. We got it into the holder. It's crooked--the trunk curves, which we didn't notice in the field due to the slope. Booger tree. I don't think HTB is too happy about that. He gave it his frowny face. The flipping thing intimidates me. I'm not ashamed to admit this. I just had these horrible visions of it coming down on the china cabinet, or on the stand we have all the family pictures on. Trust me, I kept my distance.

I didn't have time to stitch last night, and I really was not feeling well. My sinuses are acting up something awful, and that made my teeth hurt, but I know it wasn't a toothache because I just had a cleaning last Thursday and everything was fine, and I was congesty this morning. I honestly tried to stitch the beads on to Fa La La, but I couldn't find a beading needle, and was in pain, so I gave up on that one.

This morning I went Christmas shopping. I'm trying to scale back this year, but I wanted to make sure I got some good things for HTB. I found some movies he wanted, but I thought I'd get him a Dallas tee shirt or something, and they had NOTHING. Lots of Redskins stuff, lots of Ravens stuff, which was quite obvious, but it was a lot of Indianapolis stuff or Patriots otherwise. I could understand the lack if there were not a GAZILLION Dallas fans in the DC area and we love to razz the Skins fans. Since I think it's too late to order from the Cowboys store for Christmas, I bought him some U of Maryland stuff. As a devoted Kentucky fan, my soul screamed at spending money on another college's gear, but it's not for me, and I consoled myself with the knowledge that we're ranked #4 and his team is . . . not. If it were not December, it would not be in my cart.

I did head up to AC Moore to get some stuff for Christmas gifts as well. I bought some things for my friend Kathy, who lives in the UK. I don't think she'll get her gifts by Christmas, but she understands. And my exchange partner, LibbyD! I did talk myself out of a candy dish for us by telling myself we are pretty good for Christmas, til we get to the next house. And then I went down the Christmas aisle. They have all their Christmas fixin's on sale, so I bought some tiny instruments and candy canes and things like that to trim finishes. They were on clearance, so that was a good thing.