Thursday, Dec. 9

Had trouble going to sleep last night...2 a.m. before I drifted off. Got up around 7:30, but skipped my exercises again to get ready to go to the Master Gardener Christmas party. I thought the party started at 10 a.m., but it actually wasn't until 11 a.m. I probably would have gone ahead and exercised if I'd had the good sense to check my calendar about the party time.

Mother came over around 9 a.m. and, with Hubbie's help, fixed a dish of Parmesan potatoes for the oven, while I was getting ready for the day.

Around 10:30 a.m., we headed to the party, taking with us the potato dish and the gift pack for the "dirty Santa" game.

The party was held at the Extension Services office conference room, which was nicely decorated for Christmas. A local restaurant catered the meats...turkey and ham...and yeast rolls and honey butter. The Master Gardener members supplied all the side dishes.

I'm glad we brought the potatoes, because there wasn't much else I could eat, since most dishes contained yellow cheese. I also passed on the cornbread dressing, which I don't prefer. Mother said the dressing was too salty and overwhelmed in sage.

It was obvious the turkey had been prepared yesterday, because it had that day-old taste. Too bad the restaurant doesn't know my trick of wrapping cooked meats in a double layer of plastic wrap to keep air from reaching it, which makes the meat taste fresh-cooked the next day.

I had plenty to eat by the time I sampled a sweet potato dish, whole kernel corn, cranberry sauce and fresh veggies, along with a small slice of turkey and a yeast roll. Someone brought a dark chocolate cake, which I enjoyed very much.

After the meal, the MG's drew numbers for the "dirty Santa" gift exchange. Our gift basket changed hands three times, of course. When Hubbie's number came up, he stole a large wooden bird feeder shaped like a cat, but it was soon stolen from him. Then he stole a squirrel-deterrent bird feeder, and that, too, was stolen from him.

He finally ended up with a small volume of the American Horticultural Society's "Great Plant Guide." The book is 702 pages long, but can be held in the palm of one's hand. It has nice photos, and easy-to-understand plant descriptions, as well as information on what kinds of plants to buy for certain climates and environments. I think this was a much better gift than the bird feeders...especially since I can enjoy it, too.

The party ended around 1 p.m. Back home, there was a message on the land line from our friend, giving us a choice of visiting her at her home around 4 p.m. today or meeting her and our other friend for lunch tomorrow. Since Mother was really tired this afternoon, I opted for lunch tomorrow.

For supper, we had chicken noodle soup and slices of yeast bread from one of the loaves Mother baked this week. She went home afterward, and Hubbie and I got ready to go to a local church that was presenting the play, "It's a Wonderful Life." I was curious to see how they would deal with some of the scenes, like those in the saloon.

Naturally, some scenes had to be eliminated from the play, since it would be unrealistic to have a frozen lake, or a river, for instance. But the events of the movie version were fed into the stage version through narration by the angel, Clarence. And even though the play was held in a church, the characters still touched on the "boozy" scenes, such as the alcoholic Mr. Gower, and the drunks from the saloon, who stumble across the stage carrying and drinking from liquor bottles.

The set for the production was simple, but effective, and the sound was great, except for a couple of screechy times. The lighting was good, and the stage hands were efficient in moving set pieces on and off the stage. The costumes were curtesy of the community theater.

The man who played George Bailey was quite convincing in his role, and the supporting characters were obviously well-rehearsed.

There were only a couple of glitches with dialogue...both times involving the Henry Potter character. At one point, he asked his secretary to bring in "Mr. Potter. I mean, Mr. Bailey." And at another point, he completely forgot his lines and had to be prompted by the George Bailey character. The play has been in rehearsal since August, so it's surprising that anyone would forget their lines...but maybe the older gentleman playing Potter was plagued by a little stage fright.

We were back home around 8:30 after the play, and watched the 2008, PG-13 movie, "My Blueberry Nights," starring Norah Jones and Jude Law.

Law plays the owner of a small diner in New York, and Jones plays a young woman with wanderlust, who keeps in touch with Law through and exchange of post cards. Jones is looking for something that she finally discovers was on her doorstep all along.