Dear Reader Column 12-18-07

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Dear Reader,

This morning, first thing when I woke up, the realization hit me--Christmas is almost here--should have started singing The Twelve Days of Christmas four days ago, because there are only eight days left.

Breathe Suzanne, breathe.

Every year when I begin preparing for the holidays I've got my "head screwed on straight," as my Grandma Hale used to say. My original "to do" list is very realistic about what I can get done without turning into a crazy person and I'm always so proud of myself for such rational thinking. But then somehow when I'm coming down the home stretch and bells are ringing, lights are twinkling, Christmas cards and presents arrive in the mail--I lose my mind and start adding things to my original list.

Originally I wasn't going to put up outdoor lights, but yesterday, Christmas lights were on sale, (40 percent off), the neighbors have lights up in their yard--they even have cute little penguins with caps and coats on them, lights would look so pretty--so I bought some.

Originally I wasn't going to make cut-out cookies because they're a lot of work. Mixing and rolling the dough, cutting out star, reindeer and Santa shapes--that's the easy part. It's frosting and sprinkling the baked cookie that's the complicated part. But yesterday, when I was in the store, I noticed some tubes of frosting that would let me cheat a bit: "Easy to decorate cookies, just snip the end of the tube, squeeze and then sprinkle." Okay, I could do that. And I did, but the extra writing wand I used, something went wrong and now my grandson's tongue and lips are dark blue and so are my fingers. Hopefully we'll be our original color by Christmas.

Breathe Suzanne, breathe.

Originally I wasn't going to turn into a crazy person this holiday season and after a slight detour, I'm happy to report that on the eighth day of Christmas, I've found my way back.

Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.

Suzanne Beecher
Suzanne@DearReader.com 
http://www.DearReader.com

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Comments

[Jonathan Mallard]

This morning, first thing when I woke up, the realization hit me--Christmas is almost here--should have started singing The Twelve Days of Christmas four days ago, because there are only eight days left.

Actually Suzanne, you should not be overly concerned about that. You have not yet missed any of the days referred to in the song. December 25th is the first day, and the twelfth day is January 5th. Please click on the link for more details.

http://www.cresourcei.org/cy12days.html