We've had a lovely weekend, and for Fred and me, a really great one because Saturday morning I came face to face with our little mouse as I reached for the faucet at the kitchen sink.  He was nibbling on a banana peel in a little container I keep at the sink to hold bits of garbage as I work to prepare a meal.  I was as surprised as the mouse, but he was apparently hungry enough so he wasn't about to move very far away from that tasty treat.  After scurrying out of our reach and then reappearing time after time for ten minutes or more, Fred finally captured him but wasn't in a position to be able to pick him up (we both had our "mouse hunting" gloves on!) but I was able to get my finger on his tail to hold him long enough for Fred to get a good grasp on him.  Fred released him down in the woods.  I expect he will find his way back to the garage and spend the winter there unless Woody finds him again, but at least he isn't in our house in a partition someplace. Woody missed all the excitement.  He was sound asleep in Fred's office. 

The mouse gave us such an exciting chase, we didn't have the heart to kill him.   I have to say, he was a really bold little fellow and kept reappearing after each time we lunged for him and missed.  I could almost hear him laughing at us.  We were happy to have him gone, and after sanitizing the counters and everything he might have been on, I got on with my day.  You can bet we are VERY careful to be sure Woody doesn't bring anything into the house again, though.

The weather has been really nice again and we spent part of today finishing up getting things ready for winter and snow - we are certain that will happen, in spite of this wonderful weather that is so deceiving.  Now we are completely ready, so let it come!

Can you believe there are only 11 shopping days left until Christmas?  Isn't it amazing how time flies by between Thanksgiving and Christmas?  I always think I have all kinds of time, but inevitably end up in panic mode having more things left to do than I'd expected.  After years of rushing to try to finish all the things I've planned, I've finally learned when time gets short and the list is still long, I take stock and begin crossing off the unimportant stuff.  In the long run, a lot of those things aren't going to make a whit of difference.  I always tend to over-plan things, but now I know crossing undone stuff off my list is ok and the earth keeps turning just fine, whether I get it all done or not --  and it makes for a heck of a lot Merrier Christmas!