Final Christmas Shopping

Robert Concha's Christmas Madness

Gardens? Done.

Christmas Shopping? Not.

After five hours working under a warm sun, the gardens are ready for the holidays. Everything is cut and trimmed. Ready. We sat in our Adirondack chairs watching the sunset and feeling the increasing cold trying to seep into our bones.

After dinner, we went for a walk and ran into the other orchestra bass player and her husband. We stood in the freezing cold just having a grand chat. Such nice people. Our little street had the most Christmas lights on display and it felt so festive to see them all. But, nigher of us were able to get warm until bedtime. Really bone-chilling cold.

The holiday music performance with the young violin students is this afternoon. Afterwards, Michael and I are meeting at the house then heading to a huge mall for the duration - how ever long it takes us to finish Christmas shopping. The stores are opened until midnight! We need just one more thing for William. Something...

My mom gives each of us $350.00 every year, we buy what we want, wrap it up then open it in front of her. In our house, the negotiations begin early. An example: our ancient carousel CD player has finally stopped working. We are each going in halves to replace it as one of the presents. As we both use them, we are also chipping in halves for pot holders. Hilarious. His shopping goal is a lot of Levi's and mine is a brown leather jacket and a silver necklace.

We were hoping to maybe swing by the place we had our anniversary and birthday appetizers in front of the cozy fireplace high in the mountain surrounded by redwoods. It will be our reward for finishing all of our shopping.

The madness begins on Monday. After rehab, I'll food shop then home to make three pounds of Sugar Glazed Walnuts for the rehab class staff along with Amazon gift certificates. Busy week of cooking ahead. I also need to make two more pounds of walnuts for Mom and her friend Peg, Rice Krispie Bars dipped in chocolate for the three housekeepers, baklava for William with leftovers going to George (Michael's shop neighbor) and our five neighbors along with Lemon and Pumpkin Gingerbread Cake Balls. William and Kimberly are also getting some of the cake balls.

Let the cooking begin!