Our 5 Ties o’ the Day give us—from left to right—penguins with long stocking caps, used as scarves; polar bears with Santa hats or blue scarves; polar bears carrying snowboards that say, “CHILL OUT”; red-scarved polar bears and wrapped gifts; and Christmas cookies.
I don’t have any stories to tell about penguins. They’re “cute.” You know how I hate to describe something with that over-used word, but penguins are, in fact, cute.
As far as bears go, I can tell you that Dad killed a bear in Alaska in 1974, but it wasn’t a polar bear. He had it taxidermied into the proverbial bearskin rug, and it was sometimes laid out on top of Mom and Dad’s bed as a fancy bedspread. I slept on it in the living room, in front of our fireplace when I was in 5th Grade. It had snowed in late May, and the power went out in all of Delta for a couple of days. We had to go to school on a Saturday that year to make up for the snow day. Thus, our school year ended on a weekend that year. Bishop Travis is now the keeper of the bear rug, which means Gracie gets to enjoy the bear spoils of Dad’s Great Alaskan Hunting Adventure. I’m sure Ms. Grace has made a pal out of the handsome bear pelt already, even though its mouth doesn’t look particularly friendly.
The Christmas cookie tie makes me think of Mom’s St. Nick cookies. She had a cookie cutter shaped like Santa’s face, and she made sumptuous sugar cookies with its shape. After the cookies baked, she would coat Santa’s hat, cheeks, and nose with a red food color concoction, then sprinkle sugar over the red parts of the cookie. She used raisins or chocolate chips for Santa’s eyes. She made a white frosting for his beard and his hat’s pom-pom. And then she added a layer of shredded coconut on top of the white frosting to give it a fuzzy, furry texture. She made these cookies by the millions, and there were still never enough. Back in prehistoric times, when I was in elementary school—no matter what teacher I had—the teacher assigned me to bring cookies for the X-mas party. Apparently, the teachers knew of Mom’s tasty Santa creations. Mom had a reputation, if you know what I mean. It was a sad day when the Santa cookie cutter broke after many decades of use. Mom got a new one, but it wasn’t quite the same. And she was getting older. She started to make fewer and fewer Santa cookies each year, until she finally didn’t make any at all. But I can still taste them.
Holiday Tie Tally: 57 Neckties. 9 Bow Ties.
Holiday Face Masks: 3