Ten.Five Hundred & Forty-One

1. Almost. 

2. Why won’t any of these children just let me sleep?  

3. I grab ingredients. On the list for making today: chocolate cake, salted caramel frosting, muffin tin gratin potatoes.  

4. No baking soda.  

5. The grocery store is full but not yet crazy. The woman helping me at the checkout is still friendly. 

6. There’s the rain.  

7. The feeling of learning something new.  

8. The five of us in the bed watching Home Alone and eating popcorn, finishing a glass of Chirobles.  

9. I get a sting in the heart. I miss Chicago just a teeny bit. I’ll miss the way houses are lit up on snowy evenings. I miss the feeling of being familiar with people and places and things. 

10. Wrapping paper. The Great American Baking Show Holiday Edition. Bugey-Cerdon La Cueille Sparkling Wine, methode ancestral, made from Gamay.