Last night I went to Light Up Night in the local village, located just a ten minute drive from my house. The festive season has begun, complete with Santa Claus, Christmas trees, colorful lights, hot chocolate, and cookies galore. There were even horse-drawn carriage rides. (I wonder if the horses enjoyed the rides as much as the people did?!) They plodded around the village, up and down and round about, pulling the carriages behind them. Onboard, kids were bundled into blankets and parents huddled together in the frigid temperatures. I've never understood why people feel the need to be in a horse-drawn carriage. Don't we have two legs that we can use? Therefore, there's no need to disturb the poor horses. We can quite simply walk about on our own.
The stores stayed open late and offered everyone free wine and cookies. The library also offered cookies. The local hair salon had free cookies. Everywhere we went there were free cookies! What is it about Christmas that makes people bake like crazy? There were gingerbread cookies, star cookies, long skinny cookies, short and fat cookies, iced cookies, plain cookies. There weren't any half-eaten cookies, however. No. All gobbled up. I stashed some to bring home with me. I think I counted seven altogether. Not bad for a day's work.
