Congratulations to Walter!

Yesterday was Walter's official last day of work!  He retired...I kept asking when I get to retire....No satisfactory answers...

However, I got a clue.  There was a combination Christmas and Retirement Party after work yesterday...

This is the sign that he got as a gift at the party...Now I know...That's why they say that woman's work is never done...

He left for the Forth Avenue Street Fair just a little while ago.

I opted not to go.  That way he can shop for me.  Hey!  I'm not stupid.  Have fun Walter!

I decided that today is going to be a mini free day.  Kind of....Sort of....

I need to get some cookies baked and a bit of real Christmas decorating done.

We are having the family here, so it must be done.  At the same time, Amare's walking now, so I have to do some baby proofing along the way.

I got down the Santa cookie jar and the penguin salt and pepper shakers...I don't think that I have ever put any salt and pepper in them...Maybe this year.

When I sat out the Santa jar, the Terrible Two and Spike magically appeared....Reasoning?  Cookie jar appearing must mean cookies!  They aren't to happy with me.

All I could offer was Ritz Bits with peanut butter. "Where's the COOKIES???".  That came from two people and a dog, all at the same time.  Hard to understand with their mouths full of crackers and stuck to the roof of their mouths with peanut butter....It came out kind of like,"Whereeesscccookieeeesss?".

I explained to them that I had to wait until the butter got softer, before I could start...

I now have to bake cookies with butter that has been sat upon...They dragged the two cubes of butter over to the cookie jar and plopped down on it.

Tessie, as spokesperson for the group, cleared out the PB and crackers and said, "It has been decided that we will sit on the butter until it is soft enough for mixing.  Now go find the Christmas candy that you bought last week.   We need something else to tide us over."

I do hope that nobody finds doggy fur or lint in their cookies!  I tried to get them to move and they threatened to tell Santa that I was being mean to them....We can't have that!

Tessie has promised to put me on the "nice" list if I hurry up and make the cookies....Then the next sentence out of her mouth was, "Here's the deal, Spritz today, Chocolate Peanut butter fudge tomorrow.  Monday, through the rest of December to the 24, another kind of treat each day....You can freeze them, can't you?".  Then came the final blow.  "That's how it's going to work.  If you miss a day, you're off the list.  Then you have to do two goodies a day.  Is that clear?"

I can see that this is going to be a fun month.  Maybe I can talk Walter into making cookies...On second thought, his repertoire is PB and J sandwiches....I wonder if that would qualify on a day when I want to take the day off?  Gotta go bake!

See you tomorrow.