If your house, car and clothes are awash in glitter...

Does that make you a member of the glitterati? Oh, not even close huh? The stuff is insidious. And right now around our household it is ubiquitous as well. My wife volunteered to help fashion some centerpieces for our eldest son's school Christmas function. We had forty huge wreaths covered in glitter in our house's garage for days and brought them into the house to work on them.

Upon simply touching them or even eyeing the wreaths it seems, the glitter magically transports itself from the wreath and attaches to its new host with both lightning speed and an epoxy-like stickiness. Not only that, but the stuff is miniscule, making it almost impossible to target for removal. It is immune to vacuuming, mopping or sweeping. A remora would be envious of its tenacious adhesive properties. I'm thinking of renting a sandblaster to deal with this stubborn scourge.

On the bright side it is an excellent analogy for teaching our kids about the spreading of germs. They are both very visual and a microscopic bit of glitter can be used to play the part of a germ in an impromptu lesson. For evidence of how easily germs can be transferred I can even cite the speck they laughed about on their grandfather's face yesterday. How it got there I know not, but there it was. Ah, the holiday season. It is heartwarming and fun as always.