We’re down to two suitcases. That’s right. I am two suitcases away from being completely unpacked for the first time since June. My words have been few around here because that finish line has been in sight. And it sure does look pretty.

The little tidying elf somewhere inside of me is hollering, hold that paper finish line thingy tight, y’all, I’m about to bust through!

The tidying elf is Southern. Obviously.

And in other news, in case you were wondering, here are a few of the happenings around the Collie household.

The Tank is pulling up to stand and scoot along furniture.

And he doesn’t like to be told “no.” Who does?

He is very interested in getting hold of my Christmas hippopotamus. And you gotta respect a baby who won’t take no for an answer.

I may or may not have set my hair on fire last week.

What?

Why yes, a candle which had been moved from its lovely perch atop the TV was sitting on the window sill behind the TV, unbeknownst to yours truly. And when yours truly leaned behind the TV to see if the DVD player was plugged in correctly, yours truly’s long and flowy dark locks were blocking the view from said candle, and poof! My hair caught on fire.

I was very fortunate that it proceeded to dip into the wax, which put the fire out before I realized what had happened. But like four days dead Lazarus coming out of the tomb, one might have said, Lord, it stinketh.

I am rather thankful I didn’t have to stop, drop and roll, and singe the new carpet in the process.

Shew.

Afterwards HH came to the rescue and put some ice in a washcloth to freeze the wax, and then he got it out of my hair for me.

So if you notice an extra “layer” cut into my hair on one side, pretend you don’t know anything about it.

K Thanks.

And in other news, I may or may not have used a one-legged gingerbread man to talk about accepting people who are different this week.

It’s also possible that I found a treasured baby reindeer butt onesie in a box that I am certain I already looked in three times. Have I told you reindeer butts drive me nuts?

ha!

I may also still have about 50-some Christmas cards left to write. Among other things.

Perhaps one more piece of information to add to this {un}important monologue, a couple more Whole Foods posts are coming your way — apologies I got sidetracked — and I’m planning to post a linky to one of them so that if you have some good recipes or ideas of your own to share, already published on these here internets elsewhere, you can link up!

Be on the lookout early next week. Unless I catch my hair on fire again. Then it might have to wait till Thursday.

Why does burnt hair smell SO bad? Anybody wanna google that for me?

xCC