PERIL AND TRAVAIL FOR THE JOLLY BAKER

 I know, I know.

Some people just go way over the top with their Christmas decorations.

And that picture in my header isn't even the most over-decorated house one can find.

But surprisingly to me, SWMBO got the Christmas decorating impulse earlier than ever this year and our minimal decorations are already up.

And we added a few things this year, including colored lights around the outside of the front window.

Like some of our neighbors, I've left them on all night for the past couple of nights but I'm thinking I'll cut down on that.

Let Santa find his own way.

But I could have used his hyper-knowledge recently.

I have found an interesting hobby in my declining and reclining years: baking!

And I recently discovered the wonders of using frozen, ready-to-bake puff pastry sheets.

I used up the supply in our freezer but I was ready for more so I ordered some from our big superstore a mile or so away.

Alas when I picked up the groceries, the puff pastry dough was not included.

They were out of it!

Well.

A couple of days later I went to another branch of that store, an even bigger one, and they didn't have it either!

It occurred to me that I could try some other recipes for Christmas goodies that didn't rely on puff pastry.

Or I could make some myself at home from scratch.

SWMBO nervously suggested that task might be above my pay grade.

She asked me about my search for the store-bought product and then told me I'd been looking in the wrong place.

"Not in the cold counters," she said, "in the frozen food cases!"

"Oh", said I.

This morning I went to yet another store and searched the "right" area.

I found the correct shelf, with a label marked "puff pastry" but there was still nothing to be found.

I was getting a little tense but, like a dog gnawing on a bone, I was not to be deterred.

I continued on to yet a fourth store, this one a bit smaller and closer than all the others to our new abode, but they had recently completed a remodeling and were urging customers to try them out.

So I went there and SHAZAM!

A counter showed me a plethora of boxes of the long-sought product.

Two boxes came home with me.

. . . . .

. . . . .

. . . . .

But now I'm too tired to bake anything.