Christmas Eve

I skipped my exercises this morning so I could go shopping before Hubbie's daughter arrived. After a day cold enough to wear my "Nanook of the North" suede and fleece-lined coat with hood to go shopping yesterday, I left the house today in a knit turtleneck shirt, with a Christmas vest, but no coat, because it was sunny and positively balmy.





I stopped by the store that has a sale every weekend first to pick up another gift for Hubbie, plus a white knit turtleneck shirt for Mother. With these two items, I was able to use the other $10 coupon.





From there, I went to the WDCS to get a gift card for Hubbie, plus liquid bandage for his winter-dry fingers that are developing cracks. Then I stopped by a farm supply store to get another gift card for him.





Hubbie's daughter was already here at 10 a.m., when I got back home. We had a nice visit. For lunch, we had 11-bean soup and chicken noodle soup, with deli turkey and cheese sandwiches, along with crackers and various dips and Italian cheese ball. For dessert, there was a choice of lemon bread, rum cake, and a heart-healthy recipe of chocolate chewy cookies.





Daughter remarked that she would be entertaining grandchildren this weekend, and she wanted to help them make graham cookie mini-Christmas houses, using half-pint milk cartons. But since school is out, she wasn't sure she could find milk cartons. So we went down to the art gallery to see if any were left from the workshop a couple of weeks ago. Unfortunately, the arts council director had already disposed of them.





Daughter left about 1:30 p.m., taking with her a recipe of baked fruited popcorn, a hunk of rum cake, some lemon bread, and an Italian cream cheese ball, plus the recipe for the chocolate chewy cookies.





For the rest of the afternoon, we watched Christmas movies...a musical version of "A Christmas Carol," starring Kelsey Grammer, and the classic, "A Christmas Story."





After a supper of bagel pizzas, served with cottage cheese and grape tomatoes, I made a double recipe of fruit salad (which Hubbie loves), and then we set out to tour Christmas lights around town. We were out about 30 minutes, when Shih Tzu begged for water, which of course, we had failed to bring with us. So we came back home to let her get a drink and fetch her jar of water and bowl to take with us.





We set out again, listening to Christmas carols as we traveled to the historic downtown district, to the park at the river, and to various residential areas. This year, the city has done a bang-up job of lighting the downtown area, and the park at the river, and there are some homes that are just dripping in lights and light displays. At one residence, the owners have cleverly projected a scene of Santa and his airborne sleigh on their white garage door.





We toured for about two hours, and then returned home to open gifts, as is our custom on Christmas Eve. Interestingly, the two gift cards I gave Hubbie exactly matched the amount of cash that he gave me, so our gifts cancelled each other out. Also, the gift I bought him at the store that has a sale every weekend was not what I thought I was getting. Instead of an electric shaver with various attachments, I had grabbed a hair trimming kit. So we'll be taking that back for a refund in a day or two.





One gift I gave Hubbie was sort of a silly one. "It's something to take care of your needs when I'm not here," I explained, as he was unwrapping it.





He looked at me in surprise. "An inflatable doll??" he asked.





Mother and I burst into laughter as he finished unwrapping the gift...a long-handled wooden back scratcher.





I was pretty surprised, too, when I opened one of my gifts from him, and found a four-roll pack of bathroom tissue. "Toilet paper?" I asked. "Look further," he said. So I peered into the tubes and found a small plastic bag containing a pretty brown polished stone pendant tucked into one. That was one of two polished stone pendants he gave me, besides a chunky necklace and earrings, and a small, sparkling diamond-like pendant. On the practical side, he gave me a small electric food processor that I'll use mainly to chop nuts.





Hubbie got a new billfold from Mother. And I gave him Enya's newest CD. Enya is one of his favorite performers, so we have a collection of most of her works. I also gave him a big bag of homemade peanut brittle (which he loves). I didn't make the peanut brittle. I bought it at my beauty salon, where the hairdressers were selling it for a friend.


Mother got things for her new cat, plus clothing, jigsaw puzzles, puzzle books, a jar of lemon curd, calendars, and a "Chicken Soup" book about cats, among other things. Of course, she had received gifts each day for the twelve days leading up to Christmas. Among those gifts was a Christmas apron, Christmas village pieces, scrapbooking supplies, word search books, a loaf of lemon bread, canned peaches and pears, a watering can floral arrangement, Jelly Belly jelly beans (her favorite), and lunch at a new soup and sandwich shop.





Following the gift exchange, we enjoyed cups of hot chocolate and Christmas goodies. After that, Mother went home, and we watched TV news before heading to bed.