By Loretta Humble
It is right before Christmas, and all through my house, the creatures are stirring, including at least one more mouse. We got one of the little buggers in a great little trap I found on Amazon, and we sent him off with Shelly to find a new home somewhere not near anybody’s house. Shelly had come over to borrow my car. She helps arrange estate sales and she was in a hurry to meet a new client. She couldn’t use her own car because it was full of stuff from the last estate sale.
Carl got a lot of entertainment from that mouse. His recliner sits where he can see all the mouse action. It would come from under the dishwasher and run over to Bingo’s bowl, and take a chunk of dog food and run under the cabinet to eat it. Used to be, we hardly ever saw a mouse, and it was kind of cute when one showed up and started stealing dog food. We would watch him a while before we caught him and took him to the woods, usually before the cat got around to notice him.
But this guy is obviously part of a gang. As soon as Shelly got back with the trap, I baited it with some Christmas brownie, and caught another one. The cat, who is only useful when he feels like it, even got up and caught another one. I think I’ll get this bunch dispersed pretty quick. But I figure it’s time to look into some mouse-proofing. We have two guys here on the farm who can fix just about anything. I’m going to ask them to join forces and seal my mice out. Let them find somebody else’s house to vandalize. Carl will just have to watch tv.
The newest guy who can fix anything around here is named Jimmy Carter. He was Santa Claus in the parade this year. He has a pig named Elly May. Jimmy is a man of many talents, and I will tell you about him later. But I did want to mention Elly for a reason that relates to Maggie, as I’ve been calling my friend who is staying with me, the one who introduced us all to that wonderful Mayberry-type jail she visited. She is doing fantastic, and says we can call her by her real name which is Kelly. Now Shelly, who borrowed the car, lives on the farm here too. It just dawned on me the other day that there are four females on this farm and I am the only one whose name doesn’t end with “elly.”
I probably was going somewhere more sensible with this column, but Shelly came over and Kelly was showing her how to roll cigarettes on her cigarette machine, and they got to giggling so much I couldn’t think. So I gave up and went out to get some fresh air and thought of trying out those 180 Smoke e cigarettes I still had in my pocket, which is when Carl jumped right behind me and reminded me of the christmas tree decoration. We didn’t have time to finish because Kelly’s one Christmas wish was to go to a Christmas concert at Sunnyvale. We really didn’t want to go, but we took her anyhow. It was wonderful. Sometimes when you do a good deed you get rewarded. I could write a whole column about that church and that concert, and maybe later I will. But I’m nearly out of room. I’ll just say, these girls are dragging us into the Christmas Spirit.
I used to love for my family to pile into my little house on holidays. But that family has grown too large to fit comfortably here, especially in the winter. I miss having everybody here. Nowadays we usually have our Christmas get-together at the big meeting room at the Rehab building at Cedar Lake Nursing Home. Everybody brings food, and so, of course, we have way too much, but that’s okay. Nobody minds taking Christmas leftovers home. After we stuff ourselves we clear the table and spread out all sorts of weird odds and ends, as well as scissors and paste and pipe cleaners, and we all make Christmas ornaments out of whatever we find there. Everybody has to make at least one, but most make a lot. It really is fun. You ought to try it.
This year the big celebration is on the 23rd, and when smaller groups fan out on the 24th I’ll be going to Liz’s to share another great day with her big family that I will be cooking chicken and dressing the way Mama did it.
That leaves Christmas Day, when I get to have Christmas dinner at the farm for the first time in a long time, with our little community of Carl and Jimmy, Douglas ( the other guy who can fix anything,) and Shelly and Kelly and me.
And I know it doesn’t sound like it, but I promise I will stop and spend some time remembering what all of this is supposed to be about. About Love coming down and dwelling among us. And that when we are still and listen and care about one another He still dwells among us.