GENEROUS SANTA AND LITTLE LINDA'S BIG EYES...

"OHHHHH", said little Linda, "Look at all these LOVELY THINGS!"

You've heard the saying that "You're eyes are bigger than your stomach"?

Well, Today my daughter Wendy had a 'home party', and my eyes got pretty big....and my wallet got a lot smaller!

First of all, there was "Mary Kay Cosmetics", and I haven't had those cosmetics since we moved to Oregon. First because there are lots of times I don't wear make up at all...and secondly, I didn't have a 'Consultant'...well now I do. Not only do I have a consultant, but I am stocked up again on Mary Kay...and that sort of 'kills it' for all the supermarket brands now found in my make up bag.

Cha Ching! Thank you Santa for my present...I justified.

Then, I was assaulted with things like "Beer Bread, and fabulous Dips and Chai, and sure...they cost ten times what you'd buy the ingredients for at Safeway...but they were so YUMMY, and all you have to do is open the box practically and these palette pleasing yum yums just come flowing into your mouth!

Cha Ching! Santa is sure being good to little Linda this year!

A wonderful aroma drifted into my nasal senses (and I thought I had a cold?)...and I was immediately lured to the 'Candlelight Section' of the Home...and did they have some beautiful things or what!? I mean, that expensive and unique 'infinity tea candle set' just jumped out there at me...begging me to buy it at once! My resistence was already destroyed by Mary Kay and the Food Vendor...so with a 'Oh what the hell" cavalier attitude, "I snatched up that piece and enough tea lights to last two years..."but the aromas will be soooooooo relaxing" I reasoned as I totally forgot that I live in paradise and just have to go out on my veranda and take a look around...to get the same damned thing!

CHA CHING! Oh Santa, this is getting really embarrasing, the way you are just lavishing the Gifts for ME on Me!

ONE BAD THING about living in the wilderness...is when the circus comes to town, you just gotta get into that Big Tent and smell the Greasepaint, and hear the roar of the crowd! Well, I was under the 'Big Top' over and Wendy's and just sort of went OVER THE TOP myself...for me. (*Gasp!*)

It's almost as bad as going to Vegas and walking into a Casino...all my common sense gets up and walks out the door the minute I arrive.

As I drive home minus several hundred dollars in my account, I wonder what got into me? I felt guilty and ashamed (for about a micro second...), then rolled down the window and yelled into the endless forest of trees at the top of my lungs:

"Damned Straits Santa....I Been Damned Good This Year....and it's all been a hell of a ride! Thanks for the COOOL STUFF OLD BOY!"

Then, I rode out of sight...