Tis the season to flee folly

At the moment end-of-semester grades were due this morning, I was up to my elbows in dusty file folders. There's something cathartic about tossing out instructions for appliances we no longer own, discarding paperwork from our vain attempt to refinance our home 12 years ago, shredding bank statements from accounts that have long been closed. Out you go, warranty card for a defunct weed-whacker! And here's another! How many weed-whackers have I killed over the years?

Also on the agenda this week: sorting out a book mess in the basement, taking a load of stuff to the Goodwill, getting the spare rooms ready for the grandkids' visit. Not so long ago preparing for such a visit would involve setting up a crib and high chair, but these days the little people don't require so much special equipment: I clean the rooms and make up the beds and they figure out the sleeping arrangements themselves. I miss having babies around, but I appreciate the fact that the kids have their own tastes and preferences and can negotiate the logistics amongst themselves.

Of course it's a little more complicated shopping for people who have devleloped their own tastes. A toddler can be made to don any frilly little bit of frou-frou a grandma picks out, but I wouldn't have wanted my grandma to pick out my clothes when I was 11. Any kid old enough to create her own Amazon wish list deserves to have her tastes respected.

But I think I've done pretty well on the holiday shopping this year. And while I'm learning to respect the young folks' tastes, I'm also trying to bake some of my holiday cookies without butter (because of my daughter's difficulty digesting dairy products). Russian tea cakes with plant butter? It's worth a try. Is it possible to make holiday cut-out cookies without any dairy products in the cookie or frosting? Time to find out.

With one semester over and the next not starting for weeks, this feels like a good time to toss out old follies--warranty cards, paperwork, habits, recipes--and try something entirely new. I may sometimes be set in my ways, but I'm still capable of adapting to new challenges. Why else would I have a pound of avocado butter in my fridge?

(How do you milk and avocado? Inquiring minds want to know!)