What's in YOUR freezer?

A few years ago when we purchased an extra freezer for the basement I envisioned sale shopping for large quantities of meat and other frozen food, fully utilizing my Costco membership, and maybe even one of those delivery services...you know, the ones where they deliver your meats and other "staples" twice a year in bulk.

What I didn't have in mind is what I have now.

First of all, every year on the Fourth of July, my neighborhood has a parade. The parade ends at the playground around the corner from my house and culminates in some family friendly competition -- egg races, egg toss, frog jumping, turtle races (kids collect frogs and turtles from the lake), and a snowball contest. The snowball contest is ours. My boys have won every year for the last 4 years. Sometimes 1st and 2nd place. The idea is to save the largest snowball from the winter.

Well, the largest snowball from the winter lives in my downstairs freezer from January - July 4th every year and takes up ALOT of room. One whole shelf to be exact. I am quite a sport, aren't I? I remember one year when I was taking advantage of earlier mentioned food delivery service and the woman called to set up my next delivery and I had to tell her it had to wait until after the Fourth of July. She seemed confused... and then befuddled... when I told her there wasn't room in the freezer because of a large snowball. Anyway... I digress.

So, as with every other year, I have a large snowball in my freezer.

I also currently have a dead hamster in my freezer! Buddy passed away on Thursday and wasn't found until rather late in the evening. The ground was still somewhat frozen and at 10 pm Eric wasn't quite up for the task of chiseling through the hard, frozen shale that is our back yard to bury the poor little guy. So, with a forecast for warmer weather this weekend we had no choice but to wait. But what to do with Buddy in the meantime?

Then I remembered a Tastefully Simple party that I did a couple years ago at a friends house. When I went to open her freezer to get some ice the host said "Wait! Let me get it! There is a dead hamster in there." I was pretty grossed out, but she explained that he had died and that the ground was too frozen for a proper burial and they were "keeping him on ice" until spring. I spent the next two years thinking she was a wack job. Well, no more! Because if she's a wack job, then I'm a wack job -- because I have a dead hamster in my freezer. Yuck!

He'll be buried tomorrow and then I just have to sit tight until the Fourth of July. And then I will have my freezer back for its intended purpose -- at least until the first snowfall of next winter... or until another small pet meets an untimely demise.