Bah-Humbug

On my kitchen table sits a wooden bowl full of festive autumn gourds and lumpy decorative vegetables. An orange ceramic Halloweenish container adorns a canister. Our late-shedding deciduous tree in the back yard is dropping leaves. My Thanksgiving recipes are still taped to the kitchen cabinets, as is my Thanksgiving timeline for cooking. The giant electric roasting pan is in the other room, too, awaiting storage.

But I'm not entirely unprepared for Christmas. For instance, my Christmas china (Spode, Christmas Tree pattern, in case you feel like sending a gift) is on display. (Nevermind that it's on display in the hutch year-round.) And I do have those wrapped Christmas gifts stashed under my bed. The Spode tea kettle that I never managed to get put away last year after Christmas is finally appropriate sitting on my stove. It looked kind of weird in July, but now it looks just right.

I'm in a slump, but at least my tea kettle has the Christmas Spirit.