Yesterday we took down the Christmas tree. This is probably the most thankless task…anyway. It’s the first year my parents have ever dealt with a fake pre-lit tree. My mother, bless her heart, went ahead and just unplugged all the cords all willy-nilly without any rhyme or reason. If you’ve never had a pre-lit tree before this is a mistake you might make. Take heed: don’t do that.

Instead, plan to be ocd for the first time in your life and label each and every cord so you know where to plug it in when you get it out next year. I promise you will thank me.

After we wrestled it apart and got the pieces into the box, getting the box to close…well, that was a whole other issue:

I promise there’s no way to look cute while lying on a Christmas tree box.

Then my father is observing as my mother and I wrestle the box. I am straddling the box in an attempt to keep it from splaying all crazy-like while holding the lid down and my mom is taping the box closed. My father’s helpful advice: “Squeeze your legs together.” Ahh, yes, words of wisdom from fathers to daughters everywhere. All efforts to control the box were temporarily lost.

With the Christmas tree finally safely returned to the garage my mother and I went off in search of dessert. Can you imagine why I insisted we buy this one?

If you can’t read it, that says “enrobed.” Seriously.

Imagine my disappointment when I cut into the cake and it looked like this:

Well, whatever. So much for the enrobing, right? Except…then I bit into the cake and…

Oh Hai, cream cheese! So sneaky.

Ultimately, the cake was kind of lame. But that frosting was to die for. I mean – cream cheese, enrobed. Such delight and whimsy all in one place! And then it gets to be in my mouth!

Incidentally, enrobed means “dressed in” and falls between “enrive*” and “enrockment**” in the dictionary.

Less than 3 days until NYC. I am packing/baking treats tonight since I won’t have time tomorrow with Institute and my ridiculous work hours Thursday and Friday. So excited.

My dilemma of the week: the fact my name will not appropriately substitute for Rihanna’s in the song “Hard.” This is a pretty great song to run to but the best line is when she says “that rihanna rain just won’t let up.” My last name almost works if you change the cadence which sounds even fiercer but you know…not the same.

I should probably not complain since I have a whole Ben Folds song (aptly titled “Kate”), a Dynamite Hack Song (“Dear Kate”), and a shoutout from the Bouncing Souls (best title: “Kate is Great”). Let’s not even go into the band I inspired. And then there’s that band that hates me.

*enrive – a transitive verb meaning, seriously, “to rive***”. Whatever, dictionary.
**enrockment – a noun referring to a mass of large stones thrown into water at random to form bases of piers, breakwaters, etc. – which I feel begs the question, “how random could it be if you’re forming the base of a pier??”
***rive – a verb meaning to tear apart. you can use it with or without an object.