Today I have a cold.  I woke up at 4:35 am. There was a scratchiness in my throat and snuffles in my nose.  I tried to go back to sleep. I kept reaching across my husband’s body in the inky darkness for the glass of water on his side of the bed.  I already finished my own. I turned out the lights at a reasonable time last night, however my body was crying out for more sleep.

I had marketing mentoring client meetings scheduled for 9:00 am and 11:00 am and 2:45 pm.  At 7:45 am I called the first client and re-scheduled that meeting for next week.  I figured it gave me a little more time to relax and come around before the other two meetings.

I wanted chicken broth because that’s what’s good when you have a cold.  I could’ve gone over to Sweet Tomatoes, the salad and soup buffet.  They always have Chicken Soup with big noodles.  But I’m not a Chicken Soup kinda gal.  I’ve gone so many years without pasta, when I take a bite it literally tastes like papier mache.  Like flour and water paste.

So, I’m going to do something a little different: Italian Wedding Soup.

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Our Christmas tree is up and it looks all sparkly and wintery. The tiny white lights are glowing from the green branches.  If I had to give my tree a name, I’d call it Fabulous Winter Wonderland.

Maybe it’s because when I lived in Michigan we hoped for and usually got a snowy, white Christmas.  We see snow off in the distant mountains here in Las Vegas. But rarely do we get any in the Vegas valley.

All my ornaments are red, white, silver and gold.  The tree skirt is red felt with white appliqued snowflakes and a white border.  I got it from Target ten years ago, I think.

It takes the same amount of time to put up the tree no matter when I do it.  As long as it’s an artificial tree, if I do it now we have more time to enjoy it.  My guests on Thanksgiving will enjoy it.  After December 1st I’ll put up the remaining decorations. Thursday is Turkey Day not Santa Claus day.

I have a magic act I perform every year.  December 26th I remove the red ornaments.  I re-distribute the remaining white silver and gold ornaments.  Then I switch the red and white tree skirt for a swath of silver lame fabric.  Voila! In 15 minutes my Christmas tree becomes a New Years Eve tree.

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Imagine my surprise when I was strolling in the the produce section of the grocery store and found some mighty nice looking asparagus for a crazy $1.99 per pound.  I snapped up three pounds without even thinking about it. Two pounds to make this satisfying soup and another pound – well, that’s yet to be determined.

I went to a favorite recipe source and started looking up Cream of Asparagus Soup since I’ve never made it before.  I wanted a recipe that looked fairly easy. Nothing too weird. And reasonably healthy.  After all, if you can’t be healthy eating soup, when can you be healthy? A soup like this makes a great light supper for a quiet evening at home in-between all the rich buffets and holiday dinners.

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