The perfect man always greets me with a smile and a bunch of cookies.

(Pre-script: To get the most out of this post, read it as the you sing the line "In the meadow, we can build a snowman, and pretend that he's a...cookie jar." to yourself over and over again. When you get tired of that, go down to the playlist and click on the song "Winter" by Joshua Radin. I'll wait...) (...still waiting...)

I am a person who is always thinking decoratively. I am always thinking decoratively, Gentle Reader, but just not always following through with my very creative, completely innovative, mind boggling decorative thoughts.
"But Michelle," (I hear you, my imaginary reader, asking),

"Michelle, Why, are you not the following through on your very creative, completely innovative, mind boggling decorative thoughts?"

Well Gentle Reader, I could say I'm lazy; that it's easier to think about these things than to follow through with them, and that the days just seem to fly by so fast. All of those things are true, Gentle Reader, and lest you have forgotten that my little peeps are 9,7,4, and 2, let me remind you: My little peeps are 9,7,4, and 2.

(Insert deep breathing exercises here.)

So at this point in my life, I say: decorating, schmecorating...*(for the next few years, at least, I think, at which point I will either put all of my fabulous ideas from over the years to practical use, or else come up with a better excuse...at which point we might go back to square one, which, you will surely remember, is: "I'm lazy.")

However.

Y'all, Derek's mom gave me the cutest cookie jar last year for Christmas. I immediately liked it so much; the large roundy-ness of it was automatically soothingly aesthetically pleasing to me. I in fact liked Mr. Snowman so much that I was not emotionally ready to take Mr. Snowman down when all the other Christmas decorations were taken down and packed back in the garage; I figured he could stay on my counter throughout the duration of winter. Snow falls all winter long, right? I mean in places where it actually snows? So a snowman cookie jar is completely appropriate for that duration of time, right?

Y'all, I think I left Mr. Snowman up until July.

BUT

By the time July hit it was like, "Hey, look, I've got a bit of "Christmas in July" flair happening in my kitchen...mmm hmm, right next to the basket-o-junk and the...phone charger. (Don't judge me...don't you judge me...)

Maybe this year, this little guy will stay up all year long. After all, Mama doesn't own any other cookie jars,** so why not? If a person is in my home, reaching for a cookie,*** why shouldn't he or she pull the cookie out of a happy cheery snowman?**** I think he or she will have a happier cookie experience that way, don't you think? I think. Feel free to stop by next July and find out for yourself.

-XOXO,

*Unless you count the many ways the 9,7,4, and 2 year old have taken it upon themselves to "decorate..." But I'm not counting that.

**Please, do NOT take it upon yourself, whoever you are, to get me a cookie jar. It was a great one time gift; I generally discourage the idea of kitchenware or holiday ware as a gift, or holiday ware that is also kitchen ware, unless a person specifically asks for it...and, like I said, I'm happy with Mr. Snowman. He doesn't need to be upgraded.

***If there are cookies in my house, they will more likely be found in the plastic wrapping they came in, in the cupboard, where I cannot see them and lose my ability to think about anything except for trying to keep myself from devouring the entire package. If they are the homemade kind, they do not typically last long enough to actually make it from the counter into the cookie jar. (Don't judge me...don't you judge me...)

****Oh, I thought of a reason...because if you have to take the cookies out of a round pudgy fat man before you eat them, it can seem a little bit...cruel, in a not so subtle way. hmmmm.