Bah, humbug!

[jmc_bks]

Helpful hint to anyone doing holiday baking: cocoa is worse than drywall dust to clean up...plus it leaves brown streaks that require a follow up wipe down. How did I learn this? Well, I spilled 2/3 of a cup all over the place last night while assembling Mason Jar Gifts. Why was I doing such a crafty thing, since I’m so not crafty? Being frugal, I decided to do a crafty gift for work people. Mason jars seemed simple enough and hard to mess up. Except my funnel was slower than molasses in January – I think I need one with a wider mouth. Except really, do I need a funnel at all? Not really. My handy dandy wet-dry measuring cup lost its grip (it’s a cup inside a plastic tube: use one way for wet, the other for dry) lost traction as I was preparing to dump the cocoa into the jar. Cocoa on the floor, on my favorite sweater, on the sink, the counter, the stove…. Oh, and cats don’t like cocoa powder on their fur, by the way.

I’m buying cheap token gifts next year. Screw the personal touch.

On a happier note, Mom visited yesterday for our early gift exchange. She gave me some little things, since my big present was a combo birthday-Christmas one (new bookshelves). She was very pleased with her gifts and sat down to start reading The Omnivore's Dilemma immediately. I'm pleased too, mostly by the one she expected me to like least: a framed black & white aerial photo of the farm we lived on when I was a child with a color photo of the front of the house.