Went Christmas caroling to the church shut-ins. It was nice to see them brighten up, tear up, sing along, watch the children in the group or look like they were far away in another time and place.

Last night when I got my "makeover," which this promotion had started weeks ago, well, last night was the very last night they were doing it, I found out. And I was the very last person they did it to :))) Whatever they sold me, so far so good, my skin really looks better. But a lady in the caroling group today, she said how someone she knows, way up in age, has perfect skin and she uses Pond's or Vaseline. Then another lady said how her grandmother had not one wrinkle at age 95, porcelain skin, and she's used Pond's her whole life. Should we all run out and buy Pond's?

Once I read a story in the St. Petersburg Times. It was about a woman who lived out in the country, and the journalist obviously could not help himself, he said her skin was flawless, and the woman was not young. She was old. Guess what her trick was? She washed her face in fresh urine every morning. I think I'll stick to Pond's. Whatever sterile urine could do for my complexion, my complexion will simply have to do without. I shouldn't have repeated this story, but it's just so mind-boggling . . . Please forgive me for this post into unchartered territory. I needed something sensational to up the readership. Just kidding.

I was tempted to go to the mall again tonight and use some more coupons. But I've drawn the line in the sand. I AM DONE. I will just not be able to save $10 our of $50 at Penney's. I will have to pass on 40% off DVD sets at Borders. The good news is that DTD called me this morning: Did you buy me a leather jacket yesterday? No, DTD, I did not, they were OUT. DTD: Good, because there's one I really like at TJMaxx. Great, BUY IT. DTD: It's $70. How much was it before? $200. BUY IT. Then I asked if she wanted to drop it off so I could wrap it and place it under the tree. But no, she wanted to wear it to hostess tonight, as it's cooler here and the hostess station is outside. I came out of this one smelling like a rose. Wasn't looking forward to fighting the crowds in search of leather jackets that don't exist this year, hardly, only to buy one DTD would have to fight the crowds to return.

Mike and I are pooped, we carolled around for 4 hours. But to me it was very important. Once a family (I taught their two sons piano lessons) hosted a Christmas recital for my students in their beautiful home. They make the social circuit but the mother very seriously told me that this piano party was the most meaningful thing they did. That was in the day when I had a lot of students, like 20-some of them. After the performances we all sang Christmas carols. Mike and I were dating so he led the singing and he kept messing up The 12 Days of Christmas, as in leaving out a whole line on each round. He said I was doing it wrong and I was like, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?, and we publicly disagreed after each verse (12 of them, you know). But it was kinda funny, botching it up each time, everyone was laughing. Honestly, do you ever look back at stuff and wonder how you pulled it off, or pulled through? I haven't a clue in the world how I used to teach 29 piano pupils every week. What are some of the things you've done at which you look back in awe. Come on, let's brag a little.

Have a nice Sunday everyone!

KEM

Mall fun tonight. Left my sore throat at home and just went for it. The goal was to finish Christmas shopping tonight . . . that was until I found out that DTD wants a leather jacket for Christmas. Now how will I pick out one that she might be caught dead in?

I had coupons and stuff, but the highlight turned out to be a makeover at Clinique. The whole reason I did the makeover was to get the two little tiny free gifts so I can put them in DTD'S stocking (here's to hoping I still have stockings). Well, the girl who did my face was only about as cute a personality as they come. She spent 1.5 hours on me (gads, didn't know my face needed THAT much work). Anyway, she chattered away non-stop and I was in awe that anyone could have such an abundance of vivaciousness. I especially liked her because she is best friends with her mother and would absolutely have a heart attack if anything ever happened to her mother. She is in constant contact with her mother during the day. In fact, her mother and aunt stopped by but somehow I missed them. How did I do that? Then the other Clinique girl was great, too. I love my young hairdresser, too. Both of them. Yes, young women in their 20's, my new favorite age. Not to mention Christa, the oboist in our church. And others.

When all was said and done (and I bought THINGS, because the girls were not meeting their sales quotas, they would much rather gab and paint faces), well, not quite said and done, because I showed them my pile of gift cards. It's a good thing, too, because one was a SECRET CARD from VS, and I totally didn't know I had it. The one girl used to work at VS and said, GO USE THAT CARD, it might be worth $500. In fact, once one of her customers had the $500 card. Can you imagine? I imagined. But, of course, mine turned out to be worth the minimum $10. But I put it to good use and DTD now has more stocking stuffers. So does KEM. KEM also has new black jeans, courtesy of Macy's gift card. KEM also has new Calphalon panini press, the pan is ridged, which will be great for burgers, chops and bacon, I will fully expect ridge marks on my meat. Okay, so Mike isn't going to shop for me, I shop for him for me.

Well, I have to tell you, those Clinique girls just totally invigorated me. I told them, If I have the $500 VS card, I am coming back here to take you out to dinner. It's so JOYFUL to meet such lovely, nice people every once in a while, out of the blue. A God gift. Oh, and I decided I reasonably liked my nose tonight, which in and of itself is unbelievable, I must be delusional or something. I tried on so many jeans, looking for the one and only pair with even leg seams, which I just barely found one . . . sort of. By that time I would have taken anything, Macy's was open until midnight. Well, in the dressing room was a three was adjustable mirror, so I adjusted it until I found the angle I liked on my nose . . . sort of. CDW will appreciate this little tidbit, we have this little thing about our honkin' noses.

So, now I'm home and having headache. It must be the real Christmas tree. We are also having misty blowing weather.

Oh, one more thing and I'm outta here. Today I was walking downtown and heard a young woman on her cell phone, she had the cutest voice. She said, incredulously, One minute it's raining, one minute it's sunny, the next minute it's freezing . . . I got a big bang out of that and laughed out loud. It's true, today was WEIRD weather, while at the mall tonight the wind was whipping all over the place and very light mists were misting about.

Oh, one last thing . . . I hope we go Christmas caroling to the church shut-in's tomorrow. Except every year, they all pass away not long after we sing to them. Shouldn't that give us a complex? I'm not being funny, because it is not funny, not at all, it's awful, but just the same, it is the truth. It's the oddest thing.

Oh, and one final last thing. Mike brought home his leftover dinner from an Italian restaurant and it was so delicious that now I am going to duplicate it for my Christmas dinner. I think I can do that. It will be EASY. I'm very excited. When I found out the spiral ham from the health food store, my Christmas standby, was unavailable, I kind of dipped. But now I'm surfing on top of the wave . . . there she goes! Mike read in Men Are From Mars that women ride the waves. He just so happened to read that while we vacationed in Hawaii, so the location was positive reinforcement of that very accurate concept, and to this day, 6 years later, when I am down at the bottom of the wave, he just looks the other way until I resurface higher up. MEN.

Christmasy KEM

Oh dear, a bad sore throat is settling in. NOW WHAT?

Hi everyone, Merry Christmas.

Tonight we took DTD out for her birthday dinner. Japanese. Her favorite food. And fish. She loves and adores fish. From whence did this come? But I should have known, this from the kid who didn't like French fries and hot dogs and Disney World. Like I've said, she isn't American. But whose complaining? Long live the girl who avoids French fries and hot dogs and can take or leave Disney. When other parents were running their kids to The World every other weekend to be sure and recover the price of their yearly pass, we just sat back and beheld the insanity (no offense to Disney lovers everywhere). I'm telling you, the older I get, the more confident I become with my preferences. It's pretty comfortable.

I cannot use chopsticks, and even if I possessed that talent, I prefer a cheap stainless steel fork. So I asked for one. The waitress offered to bring me "cheater" chopsticks, the kind with a rubber band holding the two sticks together at the top. Mike, DTD and stepson thought I should spring for those. Well, I sprang and they sprung -- the cheaters sprung, that is. Really, when I took the paper wrapper off, the thing flew out of my hands, as a yelp leapt out of my throat. Somehow I had managed to let them pinch me. It was an odd scene and of course DTD was disgusted beyond measure. But boy, it was a bad surprise and it hurt. Those babies sailed across the table. It's unbelievable, but nothing surprises my family anymore. I try to be dignified for DTD, but it's just hopeless.

Boy, I'm beater than beat, how 'bout you? Someone said, 10 days 'til Christmas. But really it's more like 9. Hmm, I'd better face that hard fact squarely in the face . . . tomorrow. Gone With the Wind was on tv last night, followed by a documentary of the making of the movie. I didn't watch the whole movie, but Scarlett certainly liked the idea of "tomorrow." But there are only so many tomorrows, so I'd better start making good use of them.

Okay, I can't form any thoughts of sense . . . so off I go.

KEM

Tip for the day: Don't eat a chocolate pudding cup before attempting a nap.

I'm sorry, this is a really lousy blog, but my mind won't cough anything up, to be perfectly inelegant. DTD said something worth reporting yesterday, but it's gone 'cause I didn't write it down. I didn't write it down 'cause there was no way I would forget it, it was so dang clever. Also, the window cleaning lady and I talked about something I wanted to get down on paper, I remembered as I was drifting off to sleep last night . . . by morning it's gone. Better luck tomorrow.

KEM

The windows are clean! Our screens were biting the dust, so off they came. Truly, a house looks prettier without shabby window screens mucking up the scenery. The idea now is to get a couple of new screens fitted for a couple of windows we might want to open in the name of fresh air, but for windows on the side of the house, so as not to mar my new glassy look :)) I completely knocked myself out cleaning, I will say that. You would be proud of me. You would wish I had been cleaning at your house :))

So, the strangest thing happened. I can't make up these things, so here goes. Three people came to clean the windows and the team leader did the inside work. I liked her right away because she had all her clean blue rags hanging from her waist, as in tucked into her shorts all around. It looked like a petal skirt, specifically, like the costume I had to wear in kindergarten when I was a flower in the school pagent, my skirt was the stem and green leaves, I was humiliated to the end, as I've written about previously. This lady's skirt was blue, but definitely petals. I said, I like your skirt (funny how your perspective changes after 44 years). Come to think of it, I should have snapped the Can Can skirt off the tree and we could have had a really fun catwalk. Catwalk, is that the word I want?

Well, we are talking for a lot of the time we are working, my downstairs being so open and all. She was easy to talk to and I felt comfortable with her. I asked, Is it hard to go home and clean your own house, after you clean for other people all day? She said, No, I go home every day and clean something, so I don't get far behind and so I can have my weekends free from housework. Not being able to quell my curiosity, I ask, Give me an example of what you might clean. She said, Well, I might move the furniture out and clean behind it. Good gravy, this woman is a dyed -in-the-wool WORKER. I felt limper (word?) than my dust rag. This vitally impressed me, here is a woman of character and resolve, that dirty word.

I learned that she had moved to FL to be near her daughter, the daughter begging her mother to come. I said, You look like you would still have kids at home, but she said, No, my daughter is 27. Anymore, I don't like to ask people if they have children or if they have more children and other generally nosy questions. But I did, because, after all, I am KEM, I said, Do you have other children?

She said, I had a son, but he died in a car accident at age 14 (see what I mean about asking?). Of course, I just felt terrible for her and terrible that I brought up such a painful reminder. My eyes welled up, but she said she was okay with it. She said it happened 14 years ago (are you keeping track of the 14's?). The first three years after it happened she never wanted to leave her house, she was so utterly devastated. However, she is better after 14 years. She said it happened on December 14th.

Then I felt REALLY STRANGE, kind of frozen to the spot. I said, Oh my goodness, today is December 14th. She looked up at me, confusion crossing her face. No, she countered, today is December 11th. But I kindly said, Yesterday was my daughter's birthday and her birthday is December 13th. I said that without a whole lot of confidence at this point (was DTD really born December 13th and was her birthday really yesterday?). The lady said, Oh my, I've been writing December 11th on all my receipts today. I said, I'll check the calendar, but I'm sure December 11th was Friday.

When I confirmed that today was, indeed, December 14th (glad to know I have somewhat of a grip), she just couldn't get over it. I suggested, Perhaps your mind was blocking this tragic, unfortunate day. She agreed maybe that was it. Her son was in a van, the driver just having gotten his license. It was on a country road in Illinois and the driver swerved to miss another car. The van flipped and her boy was thrown from a window and killed. No other windows were broken and no one else was really hurt (5 kids altogether in that van). Wow. Every parent's worst nightmare, she woke up to it. And it was true.

She went on to say that her daughter asks her mom, Do you ever wonder what he looks like now or what he would be doing? She said, All the time, he would probably be a Marine. It empties your lungs.

When she handed me the bill she was surprised because she had dated it beforehand for the 14th . . . somehow. I asked if I could give her a hug and she said, Sure, hugs are good. I just didn't know what else to do or say, so I gave her a nice tip. Just to cheer her. I'm telling you, I won't ever forget this. So many people have a child predecease them (I told her about my brother killed in a car accident, too, so at least I could relate to her somewhat).

And it's so unforgettable that her son died at 14, 14 years ago today, December 14th, 2009. And she cleaned my windows for me that day, today. You simply can't make these things up. I know this was a God gift -- a sobering one. Not sure why it was dropped in my lap, but I'm grateful. Next time I get the windows cleaned, I will request they send this lady again.

Loving my little girl is 19, thank you, God.

KEM

This morning in church Mike led his choir and instrumentalists in a lovely Christmas cantata. It had a very Christmasy Eve flavor, all the old familiar carols. Just exactly perfect. Everyone who participated did such a great job. Let's do it again!

I forgot to mention that I ate a bunch of dates last night, too. I rounded a corner at the grocery store, and there was a whole display in the aisle, where you couldn't help but trip over them, you know, those flimsy cardboard numbers, where you have about a 1,000% chance of knocking the whole thing down with your cart? Yeah, well, I LOVE dates. They came all the way from Pakistan.

Tonight I made my fabulous cherry cupcakes for DTD'S birthday. Except they didn't turn out so fabulous. Why? Because I had to use rice flour instead of plain good old-fashioned wheat flour. Because DTD doesn't eat wheat, gluten or dairy. Let me tell you something, there is a reason why people use plain good old-fashioned wheat flour . . . it works. I got nervous when I opened the bag of rice flour, it was so white. It had a weird texture, I can't describe it but it was not nice like wheat flour. Then when the batter was ready, it turned all grainy and stupid. When I took the things out of the oven, they crumbled to death as I tried to lift them from muffin tins. I wound up salvaging two for DTD (they were in the tin foil muffin liners, all I had for the rest was paper liners, which were as good as nothing). The rest got dumped in a big pan and now I have Cherry Crumb Cake. Dang. I frosted them the best I could. Talk about a flop. They taste okay, but you can taste the rice. Pooh.

Am in the middle of vacuuming all the blinds in the house, minus the living room, which I did last week in my one day burst of energy. Window cleaners coming at noon and somehow between now and then I need to be two steps ahead. I have to clear a path to each window. That would be an outstanding idea, wouldn't it? Boy, I dread it. I also need to take my new rags, get 'em damp and wipe each slat, which will take forever, but at least the preliminary vacuuming, which is time consuming, will be done. I have learned that vacuuming first is essential, it I want to avoid making mud pies. Honestly, the older I get, the longer I let things S-L-I-D-E. Onward, HO!, if I ever end this blog, that is.

THE END,
KEM