Christmas Eve

We were up by 8 a.m., and after breakfast, I did a treadmill session and resistance exercises. Mother came over while I was on the treadmill and started some chicken stewing for chicken noodle soup Saturday. Hubbie went to town while I was exercising. I didn't even know he'd left the house until I was done with my session. I guess he sneaked off to do some last-minute Christmas shopping.



While I was cooling down, the door bell rang. I really didn't want to answer the door in my exercise clothes (a t-shirt and shorts), but I did. One of our neighbor teenage boys was there. He handed me a couple of small gift bags, one holding sugar cookies, and one holding fudge. I was glad I had a gift box ready for him to take to his family. I think he and his family were on their way to visit relatives, so maybe the goodies in the gift box I gave him will become part of their refreshment table.



After I was ready for the day, I did a few things related to getting ready for company Saturday. After lunch, we watched "Scrooge," starring Alastair Sim. This is my very most favorite version of the Scrooge movies, and I look forward to seeing it every year.



Then Hubbie and I worked together to make a batch of fruited popcorn. It didn't turn out as usual, though, because this morning, Hubbie had brought home a bag of dark brown sugar instead of light brown. So the popcorn had a molasses taste instead of a caramel taste, according to Hubbie. I never eat this popcorn, which has real butter, candied cherries, and pecans in it.



We decided to run to the grocery store and get a bag of light brown sugar. On the way, we noticed that after the hard rains of last night and today, the creeks were swollen, and low-lying fields looked like lakes. Before going to the store, we went down to the river, and found that it was flooding out of its banks. The deluge makes this the wettest year in our state's weather-recording history, surpassing the last most rainy year of 1882.

Back home, we made another batch of fruited popcorn, which turned out just right. We'll save this batch to give to Hubbie's daughter Saturday. She loves it as much as Hubbie does, so we make a batch for her every year.



Later, we had boiled chicken, with rice and gravy, and mixed vegetables for supper. Shortly after supper, my brother from Florida called, and we talked for quite a while. This brother, who is ten years older than me, doesn't have a computer, so phone calls and snail mail are the only ways we can communicate.



Around 7 p.m., we adjourned to the living room to open Christmas gifts. It is our tradition to open gifts on Christmas Eve, instead of Christmas morning. We will be busy tomorrow, anyway, getting ready for company Saturday.



We each got nice gifts. Besides a 12th day of Christmas present this morning of a scented reed diffuser and refill bottle, Mother got several puzzle books, a humorous gardening book, a Magic Chef cookbook, a jar of peach preserves from the Wildseed Farms in Texas, jersey bed sheets, a photo mug with her cat's picture on it (her favorite gift), and an original painting of a Japanese woman that I'd gotten at the art gallery silent auction last summer.



Hubbie got an electric toothbrush and an electric razor, as well as a shoe box full of western novels, a wine-colored sweater shirt, a big bag of peanut brittle, and some scratch-off lottery tickets.



I got several gift cards, and a beautiful heart-shaped pendant necklace from Hubbie. I'd already gotten several gifts before Christmas, including a new pair of brown leather gloves, a pair of gold colored Swarovski crystal earrings, a book about the wildflowers of our state, and a food blender.

As usual, Hubbie was clever in wrapping the gift cards. One was taped to the bottom of a small box of Whitman's dark chocolates (I'll sample those later), one was on the back of a cake of bird suet, and the other one was taped to a box of mini candy canes.

After we opened gifts, we enjoyed glasses of the Riesling wine that Granddaughter from Michigan gave us for Christmas, along with slices of the fruit cake that we brought back from Corsicana, Texas last spring. I'd stored the cake in the freezer, and then got it out after Thanksgiving. wrapped it in a rum-soaked cloth, and refrigerated it after a few days. Mother had a glass of sparkling grape juice with hers.

Then we played two games of Skipbo, with Mother winning one game, and Hubbie winning the other. Mother went home after that, and Hubbie and I watched an episode of "The Good Wife," before retiring.