Get Out Your 39 and a Half Foot Poles

This is Grinch Bread Pudding, made from the crusts of special green bread Coco is using to make Christmas-tree-shaped sandwiches for a party.   Maybe it will make my heart grow three sizes.  Maybe not.  But it's yummy!

I was rudely awakened at three o'clock in the morning by Star, racing around the house, scampering from room to room.  A smoke alarm was beeping and Star was aggravated, trying to get away from the sound.  I walked around the house, standing under each smoke alarm.  Each time, the beep seemed to come from another room.  I finally got to the last smoke alarm, down in the basement, and waited.  And waited.  It would not beep.  Finally, I crawled back in bed and pulled the covers up to my chin.  Beep!

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarggg!  I laid in bed thinking about all the things I hate just as much as smoke alarms.  First, there's the Salvation Army bell ringers.   I hate your bell, I hate your red pinafore, I don't have any change, and I'm in a hurry.  Besides, I don't choose my charities based on which one is panhandling outside Sam's Club.  If Half the Sky Foundation or Mothers Without Borders had representatives with money pots on street corners, well then, that would save me a stamp.  But they don't.

It could be the rain, it could be the smoke alarm, it could be that we're out of egg nog, but Donner and Blitzen better stay clear of ME today!  I hate reindeer.  They don't include everybody in their games and they laugh and call people names.  They wouldn't last a minute at recess.  Neither would I, today.  Not when I really feel like kicking an elf.