secrets

sending out holiday letters (just imagine the carols playing in the background)

I am not the kind of person that searches the house trying to find my hidden gifts. Charlie sometimes will taunt me with an offer to tell me what my present is if I just ask....knowing full well that I really don't want to know what I'm getting. I love the frisson that comes with the almost knowing, the option to know, but really I want to wait. I love the secret.

Over the months it's been easy for me to work on gifts without the recipients knowledge because they are not living in my house. Sure, there have been some last minute scrambles when friends arrive, when I realize that their gift-in-progress is spread out over a table. Thus far no one seems the wiser. But for Charlie it's harder. He is extraordinarily difficult to buy for because he has the habit of coming home with something just days after I have bought the exact same thing for him and hidden it away. Friends also know the debacle of the time I tried to buy him something on Ebay only to be outbid at the very last second by....him. He didn't recognize my login name and had no idea he was simply driving up the price.

So for Charlie the craft's the thing. I can only hope that he does not buy what I am making him. But it necessitates certain measures. During daylight hours I'm generally working on yard or house projects that require light, so I settle down to work a little bit on his item only in the evening. I never really know when he's going to walk through the door.

primitive yet effective measures

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I took the Yeti to get his claws today. His snow tires are on in all their studded gripping glory. Supposedly there will be snow this weekend. I will be completely unfazed. Perhaps I will let us run out of coffee so there will have to be an urgent trip to the store early Sunday morning.

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Eggs laid in the coop today: 2
Eggs laid in the coop Sunday: 2
Eggs laid in the coop Saturday: 2
Eggs laid this year: 366