Thursday, Dec. 11

We slept late again this morning, but I still had time to do a treadmill session and resistance workout. After that, I sat down to the computer for a while, before choosing something to wear to the Master Gardener potluck luncheon and Dirty Santa gift exchange.





I decided on a jewel tone green turtleneck, to be worn under one of two choices of periwinkle blue knit shirts. I started to press one of the shirts...made of nylon and spandex...but had the iron temperature too high, which sort of melted a little spot on one sleeve. The other shirt had somehow attracted an obvious oily spot on the upper part of a sleeve. So I opted for the shirt with the melted spot, which, once it had cooled, wasn't real noticeable. I wore the shirts over tan pants, and added some sparkly jewelry to make the outfit festive.





Today was sunny, but an icy wind blew, so it was shivery getting into and out of the van. The event was held at the county Extension Services office, where a Master Gardener committee had done a nice job of decorating with white, lace-looking disposable table clothes over plain white table clothes, adding clear glass vases, wrapped in glittery gold ribbon and containing tall white candles as centerpieces. The vases were surrounded with sparkly white Christmas tree balls.





The potluck table also had white lace-looking table clothes, but red table clothes were underneath. The centerpiece in the middle was a decorated wreath around a large candle. At the dessert end of the table was a large bowl that looked like a cup and saucer, filled with "Little Cutie" tangerines.





Most of the potluck choices were things that I can't eat, like dressing with sage, and several veggie dishes with cheese. I did have a slice of turkey, a few green beans, some corn, and a carrot dish, plus a roll. There was also pre-cooked cold shrimp and cocktail sauce, so I ate a generous portion of those. I sampled tiny portions of a couple of desserts, including a mouth-watering Mexican wedding cake (only a taste of that, because it was made with real butter and lots of sugar). I ate lightly, because I didn't want to be too full for the meal served at the dinner theater we attended during the evening in another town.





Following the lunch, the MGs played Dirty Santa. This involves randomly picking numbers out of a bag, and then choosing a gift when your number comes up. Hubbie was number 5. At his turn, he chose a large basket of gardening stuff. As folks' numbers came up, they could choose a gift from under the tree, or steal someone else's gift. Gifts could be stolen twice before they were "locked" and couldn't be stolen anymore.





The two most unusual, and most stolen, gifts were a large battery operated chicken that hopped and clucked and made other sounds. It caused great hilarity, until a second battery operated item was unwrapped...a balding man on a potty, making vulgar sounds, finishing with a grateful strain of "Halleluja."





Hubbie's basket of gardening goodies was stolen once, but he stole it back in another turn, and it became "locked."





The event started at 11:30 a.m. and wasn't over until around 2:30, because it takes a long time to complete the Dirty Santa game.



At 4 p.m., we traveled to another town to attend a dinner theater event. Before we went to the theater, we stopped by a drug store to pick up a couple of the mechanical chickens similar to the one given at the Master Gardener party. Two people were so enchanted by the chicken that they wanted to give them to family members for Christmas. We found a big box of chickens dressed in Christmas garb that flapped their wings and sang Christmas carols. They were priced at $15 each, which seemed pricey to us, but we bought them anyway. Because we spent over $25 at the store, we were given a $5 coupon to spend on anything $5 or over on our next visit.



We arrived at the theater around 6:15. The facility is in a modified store front, which was formerly a restaurant. The dining area tables were decorated with black table clothes and napkins and lighted white candles, while the rest of the area was festooned with traditional Christmas decorations.



The meal was buffet style, with choices of sliced pork loin, grilled Caesar chicken breast, steamed veggies, corn on the cob, and steamed rice. Desserts included blackberry cobbler, cheesecake, chocolate cake, and coconut cake.



The tables were situated so that everyone had a good view of the stage. We were fortunate to be on an upper level, affording us a completely unobstructed view.



The play was a hilarious British comedy about a group of ladies (and one gentleman) who attempt to do the play "A Christmas Carol," but get everything wrong. The actors wore cheesy costumes, and used sets made of cardboard. Each actor played several characters. One lady, a great-grandmother, played a little boy and then a little girl, while a ninth-grade girl played Scrooge's grown nephew. A woman played Scrooge, and a man played Bob Crachet's wife.



At intermission, Mother and I visited the ladies room. As we were wending our way back to the table, we saw one of the play's character, a woman, take a pink stadium blanket to our table and ask Hubbie to watch it. Later, the man in the play, who from time to time flirted with the older ladies in the audience, retrieved the blanket and laid it across my knees. The woman actor told him to "stop playing with that lady's knees, and bring the blanket back."



The play ended about 9:30 p.m., and afterward, we stopped back by the drug store to spend the $5 coupon. We found a wooden puzzle, suited to one of the great-children who will be visiting Saturday.

A brilliant full moon shone against a velvet black sky on our trip home, and there were several homes along the way dripping in Christmas lights. It was nearing 11 p.m. by the time we arrived in our driveway. After such a full day, we were all ready to crawl into bed.