The culmination of the soup season… the Wawasee Middle School PTO Gift & Craft Bazaar… was this weekend. We went to set up on Friday evening and were in the same spot we were last year, and Beth got up super early Saturday morning to make the sampling soups. No major events like burning the chili she was going to serve (2016) or being so late we lost our booth or getting the van stuck in mud (both 2018). The show seemed slower overall than previous years, but I guess that was an illusion because we counted over 150 sold altogether, and only 2 short of an all-time record (set last year). For some reason, the soala soup she was serving came out really bland this time, so instead of ‘wow that’s really good’ from everyone who tasted it, we were getting ‘meh…needs salt’ most of the time. I tasted it way too late in the show to make up for the lost sales, and I’m sure we did lose some because it wasn’t very good. Not sure why, but she did use a different bouillon so maybe that was it. Anyway, it was a good show, but Beth is glad it’s all over. It’s been a tough year for Beth since her back has been hurting so much this year, so I helped make soup a lot more than I normally have to.

We also had very little time to rest after the Wawasee show because the Komets annual Teddy Bear Toss was Saturday evening. They were playing the K-Wings, too, which made it even more interesting. We went with the Presslers who brought their girls, both of whom love going to the games and donated some of their old stuffed animals. The K’s fell behind early and never led, but we did get to launch the stuffies by midway through the first period. Eventually, the Komets lost to the Wings 3-2 despite outshooting them.

Sunday was Beth’s work Christmas party, which I think we missed last year but I don’t remember why, but I did find my white elephant gift from last year that I was going to bring then, so I brought it now. It was a very nice time, we had a carry-in dinner and played some party games and had the white elephant exchange. I brought a laptop satchel and Beth brought a couple jars of soup; I came home with a new board game called “Gimme That” which I don’t know anything about yet, and Beth got a Keurig coffee & tea sampler.

Alex finally has his car back. It’s been OOC for over a week now, but Monday (they suggested he wait until after the holiday) he got the towing company to come to his apartment and they were able to get it started, but suggested he drive it to the shop right away and not shut it off. He also got to learn an important life lesson, when the tow truck says they’ll be there in an hour or two, they mean a lot longer than that. But he got it to the shop and it turned out to be a bad alternator, as we suspected. So now he has a new one and finally got the car back on Wednesday.