The Stockings are Hung

The stockings are hung as close to the chimney as we can (in other words, on the closet and bedroom doors in the living room) and the presents are under the tree waiting for the arrival of the "children of the house", namely Debbie and Jimmy, age 39 and 41 respectively. My pumpkin pie is in the oven, the lasagna just needs to be assembled a little later and popped into the oven when the "kids" arrive. I was going to make pie crust from scratch until I noticed that my shortening can says "best before 2006". You can see how often I use shortening. Then I couldn't find my ground ginger and wound up grinding some whole cloves in my Magic Bullet (did a nice job, too.) I've already been to the grocery store this morning. I finally remembered to bring in my reusable bags and someone snagged one of my canvas bags! I couldn't believe that. Well, I guess they needed it more than I. I hope they like their purloined bag.

I'm still in the process of clearing off the kitchen and dining room tables and then I'll strip the bed and do a load of sheets and start the process of packing. I've been delaying bringing down the suitcase until the last moment so I don't make Rocky too anxious. He knows something's going on and he's been very clingy. I've got to make time to do something special with him today.

This time tomorrow (10:15 am) I should be somewhere around Bridgeport on my way to pick up Mom and head to JFK. I've got my phone set to remind me to do our boarding passes later this afternoon.