packing

Saturday

Stuff keeps appearing in his suitcase, having nothing to do with clothes. I see dog biscuits, bourbon, books, games, etc.   I understand he's WhatsApp'd Gini to start making extra ice for Porch Time. Given the unlikelyhood of seeing any temp above the 30's; drinks on the porch are unlikely. Drinks in front of the cozy fireplace will be just fine.

Ahh, but I do see snow boots - that's promising.

Monday AM

Ok, starting to see why all the Entry Forms nearly brought my friends to tears. United sends E-mails and texts urgently reminding us that we haven't uploaded the needed forms. We must do this or we can't board the flight. OK, I got that but we couldn't get the Covid PCR test until 7:16AM (very precise requirement) yesterday. We were in the UK drive-thru line at 8:00 (when it opened) along with 19 other cars who also waited for opening. Negative test result came last night. This morn, i started to upload but Noooo, wait .... Swiss want a Destination/Entry Form completed - which they already have but need yet another one completed 48 hours before we arrive. That clock doesn't start ticking until tomorrow morning at 7:55am; give or take the 6hr time difference. Meantime United keeps flagging us "Not Complete." Sigh!

Friends returned from Zurich last night and report the US forms are equally tedious and even more confusing.

However we made packing progress:

You may notice chocolate chips in Philips suitcase. Yes indeed, he has a plan. Premeasured salt/baking powder, walnuts, chips and a measuring cup. The man will be making his famous chocolate chip cookies. 

I don't even know how to explain the lure of these cookies. He exactly follows the recipe on the Nestle's package, no deviation - none! When we were 1st married, I saw he was baking them at Christmas, my comment was - Really? All this good stuff, who's going to want chocolate chip cookies???" 

Apparently, everyone. In 41 years; they've rarely lasted a day. I don't get it. It's a Philip Christmas phenomenon.