Merry Christmas, as merry as possible in 2020!

 Venison-based chili

 

                It’s Saturday morning. The tree’s not plugged in, much less decorated, although it is set in place, ready for my ministrations. The mantel has various things on it, waiting to be fleshed out in a holiday array. Four containers of Christmas stuff sit on chairs or on the floor.

                While son and I were in the attic yesterday, I cleaned out all the drawers of an old bureau from Mom’s era: veneer fronts that had peeled off in many places, the hardware on one drawer missing, so I decided since Eric was here to help, to get rid of the drawers leaving the shell for tall storage items. Today, a wood-worker friend Stanley came by in the light rain and took them away. While he was here, he metal-detected.

    In the top drawer of the chest was a blue shoebox of old tree decorations from who-knows-when. But the box looked sturdy. “aerology/ by AEROSOLES. “ Curiosity got the better of me, even with the time passing minute by minute.

                From what the internet had available, I discovered that this company began in 1987 and one of their products was a comfort shoe for women. I’m presuming now, that one of Mom’s children either bought her a pair--and that accounts for the box—but it doesn’t give any clues about where the tiny ball and bell-shaped ornaments came from. One other ornament was a foil-covered ball attached with a chenille stick. Another was a small metal cookie cutter also with a chenille hanger. Could these have been from our tree in 1942 when we moved into this house? Could these be from Grandma Flossie’s (Mom’s mom), hence the first Mrs. Severn’s collection? We’ll likely never know, so it would be a fine topic for a piece of creative non-fiction, or a poem.

                

            But I digress.

            Yesterday, I concocted a Dutch-oven-full of venison-based chili, and a recipe of fudge using only a jar of peanut butter and a container of vanilla frosting. The instructions didn’t say the cook needed the brawn of a lumberjack to mix those two foods into a fudge. But, with the help of a wooden utensil, I did it. After it cooled in the fridge, as per recipe, I had to taste. More fluffy than other fudges, but good. (How could it not be good?) With overnight chilling, it was even better today.

Perhaps before the day's over, I'll decorate the tree and the mantel. Or perhaps tomorrow. It'll get done in time for sure.

                Merry Christmas! 

c 2020, PL dba lovepat press, Benton AR USA