Happy Saturday morning!! What a beautiful day with which God has blessed us. Yes, it’s a bit cold outside and the stiff breeze doeesn’t help that any as far as making it feel any warmer. But — the sun is shining brightly and that makes it “look” warmer than it is. Unfortunately, there isn’t much to see these winter days. Even the knockout rose have finally given up blooming. (Remind me to trim those back again one of these days. I also need to cut back the hydrangea stems now too.) BUt, from the warmth of the sunporch, it all is still beautiful to me. The critters have all been through the buffet and flown off again. They will be back in about an hour for another round.

My Christmas tree is up — ish. I have it put together but the lights are not burning correctly. I’m not getting the electrical connections right somehow. I tried to do it last night but didn’t have sufficient light to work by. I’ll go I there this morning with the morning sunlight shining through the picture window and maybe I can see the plugs. But — I’m glad to say I didn’t waste any profane language on it. That hasn’t always been the case when I can’t solve a mechanical problem. My girls used to say, “Dad invents cuss words.” I always said that I don’t use any words not found in the Bible; —- they are just arranged differently.

Ms. Kate and I went to the grocery yesterday to pick up some stuff for cookie making. Of all the things that they didn’t have — Cream Of Tarter. They were out of cream of tarter in every brand. Obviously folks must be making a lot of snickerdoodle cookies this year for them to be out. But, I understand certainly how that happens because we witnessed two incidents of people buying products in mass quantities. The lady in front of at Meijer’s had ten of those small bottles of  vanilla extract. Unless she is giving them away, for presents, she could have bought one large bottle. At Schnucks the guy in front of me had 27 Philadelphia Cream Cheese bricks. I asked him if he was making a lot of cheese balls for Christmas and he said “unfortunately yes.” So, when you go to the store and they are out of “that” item —- now you know why.

I plan to attend a special Christmas service this evening at Trinity Anglican Church. My friend Father David Straw has invited me. We went to their St. Patricks Day service last year and loved it. This should be an evening of scripture and song. I’m looking forward to it.

There is a Christmas tree in the living room that is calling my name so I guess I better get to it. I also need to address Christmas cards today. Tomorrow our choir at church is doing a cantata for the worship service. I’m looking forward to that too. Have a blessed day.