Thursday, Dec. 2

Up at 7:30 on this very chilly morning. Before I did my exercises, I did a little Christmas decorating, including placing the ceramic nativity set on the couch table, that I'd moved against a wall.

Mother came over right after we had our breakfast, so she could put together a graham cracker cookie Christmas house to use as an example at the cookie house workshops Saturday. The art gallery director called today to say there will be nine participants for the morning workshop, and seven for the afternoon session.

Mother is not feeling very energetic, but she really wanted to do the Christmas house, and since she could sit to do it, she just took her time playing with it. I gathered all the necessary materials and ingredients that she needed.

In the meantime, I did a treadmill session and resistance exercises, and Hubbie took the van to an automobile dealership in a town about 45 minutes away (where we bought the vehicle) to have a recall part on the brakes replaced.

While he was gone, and I was getting ready for the day, I heard a loud crash and an outcry from Mother. I rushed downstairs to find that my nativity set was smashed to smithereens on the floor. Mother said the male cat had pulled the table runner off the table, bringing the set down with it. I should have known not to use the runner, which was just too tempting dangling there over the edge.

Needless to say, I was quite distressed, and since it was Hubbie's favorite cat who did it, I decided to call him to report the disaster. But to my further aggravation, he didn't have his cell phone on. So I called the dealership office and the receptionist called him to the phone.

Once Mother had finished the cute Christmas house she went home. She usually stays home on Thursdays to pursue her own activities, but broke with her routine to enjoy herself creating the Christmas house.

I spent the rest of the morning putting a few more Christmas touches around the house. In the process, I dropped a metal candle holder on my toe. Ouch.

Hubbie came back home just before noon, and immediately cleaned up the shattered nativity set.

After a sandwich lunch, I continued decorating. Hubbie found a large nativity three-piece set packed away with some other decorations, and I put it on the couch table. This is a very heavy, stone-like set that would be difficult for the cats to knock over. I'd forgotten about having the set, which we bought on sale at a hobby store a few years ago with the intention of using it on the top of the well house. When we decided not to use it outdoors, it went into storage.

In the storeroom, I found a large wooden angel that matches the stone set, so I placed it with the other figures. The angel is not quite as large as the other figures, but we agreed that angels don't have to be exactly human size. The set is not as colorful as the ceramic one was, but it'll do for this year. Maybe I'll find an indestructible one on sale after Christmas to use next year.

Then I decided to bring out some poinsettias-on-white-background placemats that I haven't used since I bought them a couple of years ago. Before using them, we had to remove the stubbornly adhered gummed tags from the fronts of the mats. Even using Goo Gone, getting the tags off required scraping with a knife. Just another one of the glitches of the day.

Once I'd hung the Christmas wreathes and wall decorations, I was finally finished with the decorating, and plenty ready to sit down and watch a few holiday shows like "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" and "Shrek the Halls," followed by "Christmas in Rockefeller Center," and the thrilling PBS Christmas special, "Andre Bocelli and David Foster: My Christmas."

For supper, we had leftover spaghetti, with coleslaw, cottage cheese, and yeast rolls. Afterward, we continued to watching TV, including a PBS episode of a present-day Sherlock Holmes, and the animated feature, "Santa Claus is Coming to Town," with the voices of Fred Astaire and Mickey Rooney.