Randoms Wrap-up

It’s not that I don’t want to post.  It’s just that… nope.  I don’t want to.

Each year I go into the Christmas season excited for the sights and sounds of the season.  Maybe it’s just the over abundance of glitter at this time of year.  You know how I like me some glitter.  I told Derek earlier that I was really excited for Christmas.  He said I said that last year… and possibly the year before.  By the time Christmas rolled around last year I felt like hammered dog shit.  I had just finished 4790 truffles and 2684 caramels, my mother-in-law had brain cancer, my dog nearly died.  Needless to say last Christmas kinda sucked.

This Christmas… THIS Christmas is going to be totally different.  I know it.

I’m not sure if it’s because I have fewer truffles to make and I don’t have to make a single caramel (I outsourced that to someone else), but I am totally optimistic.

———-*I am completely out of segways here*—————————————-

I’m trying not to dwell on the fact that we didn’t reach our Sweet Hope goal.  We had a little over 100 orders last year.  We had 73 this year.  If I do dwell on it I can only come up with the fact that I failed somewhere.  I didn’t do enough.  I’m letting these kids down.  Mostly I’m pretending (or rather trying to convince myself) that what we did raise is more than what they have.  All told we grossed around $3000.  Once we subtract for supplies and a few other things we’ll likely be sending about $1200.  That is less than we sent the first year we sent money to Baby Home #2.  Factor in that this is now a bigger orphanage with more kids… I don’t know how far it will go.  That makes me sad.

—————–*Still can’t come up with anything good*——————————-

Our meat chickens are leaving for the butcher’s tomorrow.  I can’t wait.  It has been 13 weeks.  A very long 13 weeks.  Would I do it again… yes.  But this first time was a learning experience.  I don’t know that I would to it in the Fall.  It’s too wet here.  Spring and Summer would be a better option.  I’m just happy they are leaving.

——————-*OH SHINY!*————————————————————

That was a good one.

A few weeks ago my friend Laura came into the store and said (in her most sweet and convincing voice), “How would you like to be the hostess for the board’s tree for the Festival of Trees Gala?”

My immediate answer was NO!

Really it’s become a knee jerk reaction to anything involving me doing something besides standing over a bowl of chocolate the first 3 weeks of December.  Besides, it is on a Friday and I work on Fridays.  She then turned to my boss and with and even sweeter voice asked him if I could leave early that day.  His answer was yes… dammit.

She mentioned that it was a black tie affair so I got to wear a pretty dress.  Remember how I mentioned glitter right!  GLITTER!  I agreed to do the event on account of the glitter and all.  I also had a closet full of dresses that had potential.

I rifled through my closet and came up with 3 that fit the bill.  Tried on dress #1, too small.  Tried on dress #2, too big.  Tried on dress #3, passable, but I wasn’t thrilled with it.  So yesterday I made my friend Tina go with me to look at dresses.  I believe I tried every dress on under $150 in the dress department of Nordstrom.  The sales lady kept bringing me more and more.  I had 1 option that was silver and looked really good, but keep trying on dresses.  There was 1 black dress hanging there that I kept avoiding.  Finally I tried it on and man was it beautiful.  I paired it with a pair of large drop earrings and I’m set for the event.

Here’s where I should also mention that this event is a huge deal.  It is a $300 a plate dinner.  The tree I’m hostessing is the board’s tree.  This is the tree that represents the hospital.  Oh yeah… this event is for Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital.  Did I also mention that many years ago, when I first started working with the Russians it was a group of Russian doctors that came here?  One of the places the visited was Mary Bridge… and one of the ladies that is part of Slavyanka, that I’ve had the pleasure of visiting with on our trips there, used to be the director of the Children’s Hospital in Khabarovsk.

How’s that for bringing a post around.