How in the world do I manage to get myself into these things?” Rosemary asked herself aloud, as she rolled what seemed like her hundredth ball of cookie dough in crystal white sugar and placed it gently on her cookie sheet.

     “I just jump into these things, Manny, never thinking of details.”  Manny was the name she had given God when she was a little girl, and she had continued warmly calling him Manny out of habit, as if he was standing next to her having a cup of Joe.  “I never take into consideration things like who’s going to make and sell all these cookies in the bookstore?  How come you let me get myself into this stuff, Manny?  Do you think I can raise enough money for a huge Christmas tree with decorations and all?”  Rosemary was so busy talking and mixing that she almost forgot the ginger and nearly burned a batch as she stepped on her black lab, Tops, who was her partner in crime, and always underfoot.

         While she was trying to concentrate on the task at hand, Philippians 4:13 popped into her brain out of nowhere:  ‘I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me’, and she knew instinctively that Manny was listening to her ramble as she gazed out of the front big window watching the water on Lake Tipawee.

     It was only December 1^st  she did have a little time.  Living on the floor above her bookstore, ‘The Bookmark’, so at least her commute to work was as easy as walking down the stairs.  Then all she had to do was go through her morning ritual:  lights on, ‘Open’ sign on, coffee on, unlock the door, and she was ready for business.  Rosemary prided herself on her store, and she had put in a lot of hours there.  When she was redecorating it a year ago, she had poured through design books and had managed to get the exact warm, comforting, look and feel that she was going for: oversized chairs, fun end tables, and smell-good candles to complete the whole book-buying experience......