Reindeer, Sleds and Lights

Most of my shopping is done..except for the food I'll be preparing for Christmas dinner. I'm not in a hurry to buy and then try to find a place to stash it until the big day.

The last time I wrote, it was to announce how crappy I felt. Nothing has changed. Sometimes my nose is so obstructed, I can't breathe at all through it so I resort to looking like an oxygen deprived  gaping fish, mouth open, eyes mere slits while I toss and turn on the sofa trying to find just that right spot for comfort.

The daughter stopped by with the Netti Pot and some antibiotics. Clutched in my fist  is a bottle of nasal spray. When I remember to use it, I can breathe normally for a while and I zip off for a nap. 

Carrie will be spending the weekend with her father. Exposing her again to this cold after she is on her road to recovery from her misery last week will be avoided which  means I'll fore go seeing her today. She will be back Sunday afternoon and I'll feel better by then.

As the holiday approaches, the wrapping paper and decorations go on sale. I've been watching the newspaper ads and yesterday I made a trip to Big Lots, home of the discounted everything and bought a few of those lighted metal figures and amid the dripping nose and aching head, we put them together and took them to the yard. A deer draped in white mini lights, the head swings from side to side and another figure of a sleigh and a deer pulling it has squatted in my day lily bed. A snowman stands in the concrete planter on one of the half columns of brick that border the front porch.  Extension cords snake across the porch and into the yard. Every one of them are hooked to a remote control device allowing me to hit a button and turn them on and off without ever having to step out into the 40 degree temperatures. Carrie will love them.

And finally, my friend and neighbor Pat stopped by the house last night. She was dressed in a beautiful white sweater covered in seed pearls and a pair of dress black slacks. Pat was on her way to a Christmas church dinner where she would meet up with friends. I had to shoot a few pictures of her.

It's time to warm up a bowl of the chicken soup the husband cooked last night. I won't be able to taste it but I'll have some anyway. Based upon my husband's recovery from this illness, I should be feeling better by tomorrow and brand new by Sunday. I'm counting on it.

...and now for the chicken soup.