What a fun day Friday was

Cliff and I went to buy ingredients for the seasonal dishes I crave.  We don't have company coming in, and I'm not cooking Christmas dinner, but there are certain things I only fix around the holidays.  Things like sweet potato pie, brown sugar fudge, butterscotch cookies, and hot hamburger dip.  I mostly make those things for my own benefit, but things like the cookies and hamburger dip are enjoyed by other relatives who might drop by; so I wanted to be ready to make plenty.

There were crowds at both places where we shopped, Costco and Walmart, but I took a deep breath before we left our car, reminded myself that anything unpleasant that might happen inside would not be directed at me personally, and then made Cliff go in with me as a bodyguard and guardian angel rather than sitting in the car reading a book on the Kindle as he would have preferred.  I bought a Costco fruitcake for a very reasonable price, which made my day since I love fruitcake, and a big bag of grapefruit, among our other purchases.  Merry Christmas to me!  This got me into the spirit of the season, so even Walmart wasn't a bad experience this time, in spite of the swarms of people.   

I had chicken salad waiting at home (made from some frozen Costco chicken breast from our pre-Thanksgiving trip there), so we got home and made a sandwich with that.  While I was still making my sandwich, Cliff said, "There's a vehicle sitting out in the driveway."

Sure enough, there was a van with writing on the side.  Before I could figure out what was going on, my cell phone rang, but it took me so long to dig the phone out of my purse, the caller hung up.  It wasn't a familiar number, but I rang back anyhow.  It was the guy in the van, saying he had some food for us.  

"But we didn't order anything," I said.  He responded that it was a gift from our insurance company (Coventry/Aetna), and that they were supposed to have called ahead.  I explained to him we miss a lot of calls, since neither of us stays by our phone all time time.     

Well, he started bringing in boxes and I could hardly believe my eyes.  What sort of food could be in there?  Maybe Christmas cookies, or fresh fruit?  Maybe some of those cheese assortments you get at Christmas?  I was rather excited!  

Folks, I had forgotten the pure joy of opening an unexpected box containing gifts the nature of which I could only guess.  

 Two loaves of bread and 10 frozen meals:  two breakfast, eight dinners.

 Frozen milk and juices, and some desserts.

Enough soup crackers in individual portions to get us through the winter. 

 Several individual packages of peanuts and two packs of animal crackers.

 Granola bars, raisins, fruit cups, etc.

 Powdered milk

Small individual cans of food, various kinds

Now, we likely won't use the milk, either frozen or powdered.  I will see if any of my relatives want it.  The bread makes good toast, so it went in the freezer.  We microwaved the frozen breakfast meals yesterday morning just to see if they were fit to eat, and they were better than expected.  It was a decent meal.  All this food is no-salt or low-salt, so we sprinkled a little salt on it.

The funniest part of this was how happy and excited I was with something that hardly fits in with our lifestyle at all.  It was so much fun discovering the various things in those boxes.  You see, we don't do presents, and haven't for a long time.  We have everything we need, and aren't great at choosing gifts for others, which is why we stopped the madness.  I cook our meals.  Canned and frozen meals are things I wouldn't normally think of buying in the store; I don't even like them that much.  But in the form of a surprise, this was perfect timing.  

It also made me think of the folks our age living alone with barely enough money to make ends meet.  Some of them probably don't bother fixing meals and opt for a sandwich.  Those folks, I'll bet, were overjoyed to see all this bounty.  I'm thankful Cliff and I are still able to purchase the foods we love. 

Thanks, Coventry, for the seasonal cheer.  I thought I was past being surprised at this stage of my life.

As for yesterday, my daughter and I ate lunch at Jazz and went to see those mummies at Union Station before they leave next weekend.  This is one thing Cliff has refused to see with me... he thinks it's creepy.  This is the guy who thoroughly enjoyed "Bodies Revealed" when it was in town; go figure.

It's been a good couple of days, even though it ended on a sad note when I was messaged by a friend telling me her mother, one of the dearest souls who ever walked this earth, had died.  I knew her time was near.  Somehow it feels like the snow that surprised me when I went to bottle-feed the calves earlier is a message from Shirley telling me she made it, safe and sound, to her final destination.  

Beyond this land of parting, losing and leaving

Far beyond the losses darkening this, and

Far beyond the taking and the bereaving

Lies a summer land of bliss.