Merry Christmas... You're under arrest.

Ahh, yes. The smell of pine in the air, whispers of holiday music filtering through the local downtown retail shops, and the crunch of freshly fallen snow beneath your feet. Could there be a better time for jail than now?? Today was a rough day. I have spent the past two entire afternoons at work trying to coordinate services for a homeless couple, one of whom has multiple, complicated medical issues. After doing some fairly extensive research on the background of this couple, I discovered there was an arrest warrant out for one of them. Arrrg!!! So, because of ethical and moral obligations, I reluctantly had to do something about it. I finished working with them for the day and sent them on their way after getting some things lined up for the evening, and then had the most unpleasant experience of having to call the police letting them know the whereabouts of my client. So, as I sit here writing this, my client is probably getting an unsavory visit from a man in a blue polyester uniform. And yeah, he deserved it and all... but man! I hate this sort of stuff. Earlier in the day, though, a colleague and I went to pick-up gifts from a local church where we coordinated getting gifts for some of our low-income clients. I had selected two of my clients with kids who were especially in need, and they were ecstatic to get some gifts for their kids they would likely have not had otherwise. That felt pretty good. So, with two major extremes in one day, I guess somewhere we'll find an average (notice I did not say happy medium.)

This past Sunday, I decided I would muster up some gumption to drag out the Christmas tree, and make an attempt at putting it up. I thought maybe I'd strive for putting up the 5-1/2 ft pre-lit tree this year instead of our 7-footer we got from some good friends a year or so ago. After the 10-second assembly, getting it up and unfurling the crumpled branches, I plugged it in. Joy of joys, none of the lights lit up except for those on the bottom portion of the tree. Good grief, Charlie Brown. I got too annoyed to deal with it, and went out to do some Christmas shopping. When I got back, I decided that since we're having a local Christmas with family this year, there was no sense in decorating. As I re-crumpled the non-working pre-lit tree, shoved it back into its cardboard box and taped it shut, I shouted, "Merry Christmas!" Pat & I had a pretty good laugh about that. (Yes, I know... bizarre sense of humor.) Better luck next year. I re-packed what I had taken out and put everything back into the "Christmas closet" and Pat & I laughed a little more about how fast Christmas went by this year. Bah humbug! Hey, there are evergreen arrangements in my cement urns on my front porch (thank you, Seester) and an evergreen wreath complete with festive bow near my front door, what more do I need?

On Saturday, my sister is having a holiday party at her place in Chicago, so weather-permitting, I plan to drive in for that. I'm really looking forward to it provided we don't get a blizzard. I'll be bringing some sort of Crock Pot shenanigans. As I think I might've mentioned before, I do love the gourmet versatility of the crock! Most people would never think of using the words gourmet or versatility in conjunction with Crock Pot, but those are the folks who haven't lived!! Okay, so I'm back in the midwest again... this is the sort of thing I have available for my mid-winter entertainment.

And speaking of winter, I've been informed that we haven't had this much snow since 1979. Now, I don't know if that's true, but it's nice to know that my return to the midwest has potentially inspired new records & re-activated employment for many a starving meteorologist in our cornbelt. I do remember '79. Somewhere in the family archives, I remember a yellowed photo of the 20-ft snowpiles left by the plows when my grandparents used to live in Wisconsin, just over the Illinois border. I have a lot of great memories of my childhood winters. Sledding down the big hill in Russell's Woods on our round aluminum sled, making snow forts out of blocks with our "special" snowblock maker, and playing in the field across from our yard in the house my sister and I grew up in... that was a lot of fun. Not too long before I moved to AZ, my 80-something Grammie and I made a snowman in my parents' front yard. That was great!! We went out really late at night and made this huge snowman which lasted for several weeks. I do hope we'll have at least one snow that's wet enough to make a good snowman. At the rate we seem to be going, I know it won't be long. It was always such a treat to play in the snow as a kid. The best part was when we came in, we'd jam our wet snowsuits into the dryer, Mom would make us hot cocoa and marshmallows, and then we'd re-suit and go back out again. Those were the days! For fun just the other night at about 11:00 p.m., I suited up and went out to shovel our front walkways. I even did the neighbor's sidewalk, just for kicks. I did have a few cars drive by real slowly, probably thinking I was some sort of midnight snowfreak, but that was okay. When I came in I realized how out of shape I was after doing a little shoveling for 40-minutes. Ow, my shovel arm! Oh well, my Kathy Smith exercise system should be arriving soon and I'll be fixing that jiggly shovel arm in a jiffy!