December 21st Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina –

Good Morning! 95 presents wrapped, and around fifty more to go. Before you all think I go completely overboard, let me say, we wrap all the stocking stuffers as well – so that means even the 3/$1 packets of flavored hot cocoa the kids are getting in their stocking, get wrapped individually. Even though I hate to wrap, I know how much fun it is to unwrap a gift, so we wrap EVERYTHING.

I should have wrapped 96 gifts yesterday, but somehow between Thursday night and Friday morning, I lost the box of jumbo muffin liners which were supposed to go in Lys’ stocking. They were sitting on the kitchen table and then they were gone. I asked the folks who were at the cookie exchange if they put them in their bag by mistake when they were packing up, but they said no. It’s a mystery.

Now I need to remember to pick up another pack of muffin liners when I’m out shopping or the stockings won’t be even. Here’s where you will think I am crazy, but it’s just the way I have always done it. Each of my children has EXACTLY the same amount of gifts to open, and I can usually get the value of said gifts within $5 of each other. This year I did really well and got the gifts within $1. Granted it does take a little finagling – one kid might have each $0.33 hot cocoa wrapped separately and one might have either two or three of them wrapped together to make my numbers even.

This year each of my kids, including my son’s girlfriend, will have nineteen stocking stuffers to unwrap. It’s funny, I have been doing this for so long, I don’t even count while I’m shopping. There’s no way I possibly could since I literally shop all year, picking up little things here and there. Yet when I finally get downstairs and sort everything out, the gifts are usually pretty even (and when they’re not, it’s because I have forgotten where I hid a gift).

So do you think I’m certifiable? What holiday quirk do you have? What one thing has you worried about the men in white coats carrying the butterfly nets coming to get you?

Today, since it is supposed to be sunny and in the sixties, I will be baking the Christmas bread. In order to do it, I will need to channel my Baba’s spirit, because every year something doesn’t go quite right with the bread. It’s usually the weather which interferes – if it is raining, snowing or too cold, the bread won’t rise properly. Last year we had a day much like today, where the weather was perfect, so the bread should have come out perfect. Well it didn’t. Wanna know why? Because dingy me forgot to add the sugar. I’m still kicking myself over it. In my defense, there is no exact measuring or even a written recipe for the bread. Well today I have the opportunity to redeem myself. I have ideal weather conditions and I intend to lay all the ingredients I need out on the counter BEFORE I start the process. Wish me luck!

I hope you have a wonderful day and happy writing!

 

Your Last Challenge was:

You are sent back to earth as one of the seven deadly sins in human form. You can pick whichever sin you would like, but you must describe yourself without actually saying which sin you are – let us try and figure it out.

So this is the punishment for a less than stellar life is it? Well I’ll show them! I don’t need their help or approval; I can do this all on my own. I’ll just go and find everyone on this Earth who was far worse than I ever was. That’ll show them.

But wait. If I do what I was instructed to do, wouldn’t that damn me to just more of the same? Seal my fate for all eternity? What if I still find those people, but instead of egging them on, I show them the error of their ways? No, I couldn’t simply show them, because then they wouldn’t learn anything. I need to make them realize what they are doing and let them want to change themselves.

Hah, if I can accomplish that, it would thwart the master plan. The soul quota would seriously be under met, for I can only approach the folks suffering from the same sin as I had when I was alive, but it is a start. I wonder if I have the ability to find my six counterparts. If I could enlist their help, we could obliterate the plan altogether.

So who was I?

Your Next Challenge is:

Just smile and say thank you.

 

You have 10 minutes (be honest). There is no right or wrong, just write. Spelling and punctuation don’t count and NO ONE is allowed to criticize what someone else has written. Go.