Christmas Preparations

There are days when a person might consider themselves to be well-organised, ahead of the game, doing rightly but, as always,  chaos can never be far away.

This was such a day. Supper was prepared before midday, all that was needed to accompany it was a simple little salad. No reason why I should not be able to make a batch of chili jam, prepare butternut squash soup, rack the Summer Fruits, take a little dander around the Buttermilk Bridge, relax with my 1000 piece Klimt jigsaw, wrap some Christmas presents, pick Hannah up from work and so on...

Was just as well I prepared supper early (seriously delish lasagna since you ask) as I found myself roasting butternut, rinsing lentils (for the soup) and preparing a wrapping station for the presents. Scissors, sellotape, festive paper were all set up, as were the gifts. Hannah helped out and we were done in no time. I cleared the work surface of Christmas things, tossed up the salad, took the lasagna out of the oven and we started supper. Bert was off on an errand as he always finds something to do ten minutes before meal times. He came in soon after and helped himself.

I had barely started clearing when I noticed two unwrapped presents. Sure it wouldn't take a minute to wrap them up. Out again with the sellotape, scissors and paper. First one wrapped. Was it just the tiniest bit greasy? Never mind, second one wrapped and just as I was folding over the last corner and starting to sellotape I spotted the little shred of lettuce stuck to the gift. Oh damn. I wrapped it anyway. Who'll notice a pick of vegetable matter in the present unwrapping frenzy that is Christmas morning? It was Bert, always careless when dolloping food from bowl to plate and myself, of course, careless in my cleaning. The person who will be having salad with her Christmas gift is Miss Evie. I don't think she'll care.