Wednesday, December 16

We were up at 7:30 this morning, and I got on the treadmill and did weights exercises right after breakfast. While I was getting ready for the day, Hubbie sliced dates and chopped pecans for a recipe of chocolate date nut bread. Mother came over while he was doing that and gathered the rest of the ingredients for the bread.

When I came downstairs, Hubbie was sitting in the living room, and he beckoned for me to come sit with him. Then he told me that he'd gotten a call from one of the Master Gardeners that the husband of another MG had been killed in an automobile accident yesterday evening around 5:30 p.m.

We'd just seen this man last Thursday at the MG Christmas potluck. So today I immediately visualized him opening a gift during the Dirty Santa game. We all laughed when he held up a quilted apron and some kitchen tools. Someone stole that gift from him, and the next gift he opened was a sparkly little Christmas tree. It's hard to believe that such lighthearted moments can be followed by such tragedy in the space of a week.

The man's twelve-year-old granddaughter was in the car with him but, thank God, she survived. It is speculated that the man became distracted by fiddling with the dials on the dash of his new car while traveling on a curve, left the road, and then overcorrected and went off and embankment on the other side of the road, flipping the car several times.

His wife, the Master Gardener member, is also a member of my water aerobics group. We are just sick at heart for her. We don't know yet when the visitation and funeral will be scheduled.

Keeping our friend in our thoughts and prayers all day, we went on about our business. I mixed the ingredients for the chocolate date nut bread and got the loaf into the oven. While it was baking, Mother and I watched "The Polar Express," on DVD, which took us up to lunch.

After lunch, I made a batch of jalapeno dip and used it, along with snack crackers, to make a gift plate for the ladies at our beauty shop. Hubbie and I dropped the gift off at the shop before we went to the WDCS. At the store, we picked up ingredients like cream cheese and sour cream for making dips and cheese balls. We also bought a new blender, because the plastic top to my old one practically crumbled when I tried to use it today to blend the ingredients for homemade tomato soup.

Back home, Mother and I watched "The Nutcracker," with Mikael Baryshnikov, and an old video recording of the Boston Pops, which features a really cute reading of "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas."

For supper, we had the homemade tomato soup (yummy) and cold meatloaf sandwiches, plus slices of the chocolate date nut bread.

Later, Hubbie and I watched as our favorite basketball team played to a wide-margin win.

Funny: got a message from Sis thanking me for the Christmas card I sent her, but saying that if it had not been for the return address on the envelope, she wouldn't have known who it was from. Apparently, I forgot to sign the card. I wonder how many others got no-signature cards?