Hi, Everybody!

And thanks for reading.

I can't type for long because my husband is breathing down my neck about finishing the many Christmas projects I've begun. And I don't blame him. The apartment has sunk into dishevelment over the past several days. Whoops.

But today I found mistletoe! I love mistletoe. I remember my mom climbing to obscene heights in pursuit of mistletoe. I always admired her willingness to get r done when it came to mistletoe. I had never heard of anyone shooting mistletoe down until I was a grown-up because my mom always took the climbing upon herself.

I wish I'd had the camera with me, but I didn't. I'll just have to explain today's mistletoe experience.

All year long I note the mistletoe trees I pass. This year the most likely crops were in the yard of the Jewish Temple on Jamestown Road right across from the college and the trees surrounding a swampy area near Ukrop's. But all were too high and, in the case of the Temple, too - er - sacred? So imagine my elation when I found lots of low mistletoe in a friend's apartment complex!

Luckily, the hydraulics on our trunk are busted so we've been using a stalk of bamboo to hold open our trunk for the past four months. So I had a long bamboo pole at the ready for whacking down some mistletoe. It turned out that by jumping and whacking I could barely reach the edge of the generous bounty of mistletoe, so I took it to the next level. I parked the car as close to the tree as I could and I climbed on top with my bamboo and whacked down all the mistletoe I could. I got a fair amount even though I could only reach about 5% of the available mistletoe. Somebody with a ladder is going to rack up. Vivian got to watch all this through the sunroof. From her reaction, you'd think we climbed on the car with bamboo and whacked at trees all the time. She only asked, "Mommy, did you get some mistletoe?"

I love mistletoe because it means KISSES! If you're not with me on this, then I understand. But I think it's one of the sweetest holiday traditions there is.

I keep meaning to write about:

Mazie and Betty and the pencil sharpener.
Vivian's interpretation of childrens' church.
Tutoring

But not tonight, 'cause I'm about to get into production mode!
Take care, all!