{"id":8845,"date":"2016-12-09T10:55:58","date_gmt":"2016-12-09T16:55:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ncobrief.com\/?p=8845"},"modified":"2016-12-09T10:55:58","modified_gmt":"2016-12-09T16:55:58","slug":"17-days-and-counting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ncobrief.com\/index.php\/archives\/17-days-and-counting\/","title":{"rendered":"17 Days and Counting"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"From<\/a>

From last year – a representative sample of our neighborhood Christmas gift<\/p><\/div>\n

Seventeen days to Christmas and counting \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 yikes. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s coming at me like a freight-train. We finished the custom fleece blankets for the nieces and nephews \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 but have yet to package and mail them. I have yet to order some Christmas presents to be sent to family \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 seriously, where the heck does December go? And we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re just a week into it, too.
\nOf course, I am distracted by the weekly market events. Blondie\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Montero has been kept loaded since mid-November with all the market impedimenta; the pavilion and the weights, the tables, folding chairs, signage, display racks, table dressings, the strings of lights and extension cords for the events which require them, the tool kit for emergencies, the Rubbermaid tub with the folder of extra flyers, postcards \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 and of course, the other tubs and boards of merchandise which are the whole purpose for these excursions. We have not even unpacked the Montero between market excursions. The purpose for all this is pure basic capitalism: We have goods \u00e2\u20ac\u201c books and origami creations, to exchange for cash or occasionally in kind \u00e2\u20ac\u201c with people who desire to own said books or origami creations. This \u00e2\u20ac\u201c leading up to Christmas, and the customary exchange of sometimes frivolous consumer goods between consenting adults, and presented to the immature specimens of our species of whom we are fond \u00e2\u20ac\u201c is the reason that most vendors of consumer goods make their nut in the last quarter of the calendar year. I have no critique to make of this arrangement; it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s our custom, and not only do I demand respect for it, I participate willingly.
\nBut enough about the commercial aspect of the season \u00e2\u20ac\u201c now about the neighborly and altruistic aspect. It has been a long-established custom in our family to make home-made treats to present to hapless acquaintances and neighbors. My mother\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s practice was for cookies \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a fairly decent basket-assortment of butter-cookies and slabs of cake and fruitcake, which we attempted to emulate for a couple of years. Then we tried out giving small gift-baskets of other gourmet items, since simply everyone does Christmas cookies \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 until my daughter hit upon the notion of boxes of gourmet fudge, after visiting a candy store in in Fredericksburg some four years ago and sampling \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and purchasing a few bits of their finest specialty fudge. Oh, a hit \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a very palpable hit! Boxes, tins and plates of various flavors, made from the very best ingredients. High-quality chocolate, real butter and cream: We knew that we had a winner after the first year, when in late November of the second year, various neighbors began to hint, wistfully. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Say, are you gonna be doing that fudge again \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 that was soo good\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6\u00e2\u20ac\u009d
\nThis was the week that we scheduled for making up batches of eight different kinds of fudge; chocolate with nuts, chocolate with nuts and cranberries, brown-sugar and toasted-pecan, white chocolate coconut, raspberry-creamsicle, peanut butter, and Bavarian mint chocolate, and brandy-alexander chocolate. That was Monday thru Wednesday; Thursday and today are dedicated to packaging and delivering. We do a massive pair of boxes for the local fire station, and the nearest police substation to us; a smaller one for the Frost bank branch where we do business, for Alfred the mailman, and the guy who drives the trash collection truck. Those all went out yesterday, to great appreciation from the receiving staff at the fire station and police station, especially. Today \u00e2\u20ac\u201c it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s another round of packing and delivering boxes for the near-in neighbors. Another Christmas objective achieved; tomorrow, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all day at the Old Courthouse in Blanco for the next to-last Christmas market. Sunday \u00e2\u20ac\u201c perhaps we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll feel sufficiently energetic to hang out some ornaments on the bay tree, and to sit down and do mail-order gifts for the family in California. And that was my week \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Seventeen days to Christmas and counting \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 yikes. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s coming at me like a freight-train. We finished the custom fleece blankets for the nieces and nephews \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 but have yet to package and mail them. I have yet to order some Christmas presents to be sent to family \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 seriously, where the heck does December […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4,69,75],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aint-that-america","category-domestic","category-eat-drink-and-be-merry","category-literary-good-stuff"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncobrief.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncobrief.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncobrief.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncobrief.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncobrief.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8845"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ncobrief.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8845\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncobrief.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncobrief.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncobrief.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}