Can’t believe January is over. Wow! It’s usually such a slog. But this year, didn’t it just fly by? I don’t ever remember having so many days in December and January where the temperature got over freezin’! Why, my niece Caitlin’s boyfriend, Adam, is still riding his bike to work! It’s crazy, but I’m not complaining. ‘Course, that can’t be said of everyone.

My sister Irene gave me a new Crock-Pot for Christmas, or “slow cooker” as they’re calling it nowadays. What a great little rig! Listen, I can throw a bunch of stuff into it before I leave for work, and when I get home, the place smells wonderful. Like my personal chef has been slavin’ away all day preparing a delicious, nutritious meal for me. Basically, I get to experience what Charlie’s been comin’ home to for the last forty years!

Get this folks: in Maine, it’s illegal to have your Christmas decorations up after January 14th. Really! And you could be fined for doing so! This was the buzz going ‘round the A&P last week, so I checked it out on the Internet, and apparently it’s true. Not that you can believe everything you read on the ‘net. Still, I found it on more than one site (there are several) dedicated to “dumb laws.”

The most important thing in life is having a positive attitude. That’s what I think. It not only helps you live longer, it makes life a heck of a lot less stressful and frankly, much more fun.

Easier said than done, right? ‘Cause some days, it just seems like there’s of host of little gremlins conspiring against me to derail my positivity. And the biggest culprit of them all? Me, usually.

The other day, I happened to be watching Charlie when he sneezed. Nothing particularly fascinating about that, of course, but he was standing up at the time, and I saw him kind of bend his knees a little and hunch over.

“What are you doing?” I ask him.

“What does it look like I’m doing? Protecting my back.”

Phew! Another Christmas behind us. Every year, I think it’s the best one. And you know, every year I’m right.

Did you do a lot of entertaining over the holidays? We did. As usual, Charlie and me kind of held our breath with our dog, Scamp. He’s been getting better, sure, but he’s still kind of unpredictable.

Christmas is less than a week away, and presents are piling up under the tree at Mahoosuc Mills Town Hall. See, every year, they put up a Christmas tree down there with stars on it. On each star is a request for a present from a kid in town. You know, a kid whose family needs a little help. Some of them will just break your heart: a Barbie doll, Play Dough, a new winter hat and mittens. I mean, these kids have nothing. Anyone can go down there, take a star, buy the present, wrap it and drop it back to the Town Hall.

 

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I don’t know about where you live, but up here in Mahoosuc Mills, seems like the minute Turkey Day was over, folks started flyin’ into Christmas! Big time! And it’s just been building ever since. We’re all scrambling to take advantage of this beautiful weather to hang lights and get our decorations up. It’s just all so festive, you can’t help but being swept up in it.

Now, I don’t know if you know, but the Women Who Run With the Moose, (Celeste, Rita, Betty, Dot, Shirley and me) are big into crafts. We just love to get together and cut, paste, and hot-glue. Then we put sequins on everything to cover up the boo-boos! We usually spend half the year trying out different ideas, see if anything flies. When we find one with potential, we focus on that for the last half of the year, in preparation for the Christmas Bazaar down to St. Hyacinth’s.

Charlie and me buzzed over to the Agway, Saturday. He was picking up his snow blower, which was in for a tune up, and I wanted to get some more bulbs to sneak into the ground. You know, before it’s too late. I got some assorted tulips and daffodils. Come spring, you can’t have enough of them, in my opinion. Those hopeful, green shoots pokin’ their way up out of the remaining patches of snow. Then, gorgeous flowers: red, yellow, pink, orange! It perks my spirit up, no end.