The Cousins Are Coming!!!
Karen called this morning and asked if her kids could bunk here for two days while she attends a mandatory DA training seminar. This should be fun - just have to clean the crap shack. (But we should be doing that anyway, right?) And wrap the gifts that I was going to mail later this week.
Some people want to put up the tree, too, but I can only deal with one crisis at a time. I’m just happy that we found a tree. By mid-December, the loss leader trees at Menard’s, Frank’s and Home Depot are long gone. We stopped at the local landscaper’s retail sales lot, lured in by a sign that said SALE. Twenty percent off of pricey trees was still painful, but brought the price down into the range of what I am willing to spend (and shaving a little out of the grocery budget) just to get a nice tree with minimal stress. I was able to sail past thr $100 Fraser firs without choking, and found a reasonable balsam. It made the van smell so wonderful. I wanted to keep it in the van when I went to Target with Martha, but we decided that we couldn’t ‘enjoy’ our shopping experience while worrying that some demented person would steal our perfect tree. (Out of a locked, scary looking van with peeling paint - of course, only a demented person would even attempt that!)