Tuesday, Dec. 20

Today is Son's birthday. Happy Birthday, Son! It is also Nephew's birthday. Happy Birthday, Nephew!

We were up around 7:30 this morning, and after breakfast, I did a treadmill session and resistance exercises. Mother took care of her own needs and got settled in the den.

I feared that since I'd ordered Christmas gifts online so late, that they might not arrive by Saturday, but they all came this morning, so I got them wrapped and under the tree.

Mother's nurse came earlier than usual today, around 10 a.m. I was upstairs getting ready for the day at the time, so I didn't see her.

Around 10:45, I went to the beauty shop for a haircut. A soft, gray, fog lent a pleasing dreamy quality to the landscape on the drive to town. The temperature was mild enough that I only needed a long-sleeved shirt and holiday vest to be comfortable.

The shop is in the process of being remodeled, so wallpaper has been stripped from some of the walls. The owners said they are replacing counters with what look like tool drawers. I saw one, still boxed, in the waiting room. I can't visualize how those will be useful, but I guess I'll find out when I visit the shop again.

Story from my hairdresser: her daughter accompanied her boyfriend to meet his step-parents family. The grandmother of the family had sent invitations to the Christmas gathering, and requested that there be no gifts.

This being the young woman's first visit, though, she felt she should take a token gift...a $5 monogrammed Christmas ornament...as a way to thank her hostess. When she and her boyfriend arrived, she gave the gift to the grandmother, who threw the gift in a corner and snapped at her that she had specifically been told not to bring a gift. The young woman fled the house in tears.

If I were this young woman, I'd have to think twice about continuing a relationship with the young man, if it meant having to deal with that very rude woman.

Story number two: as I was waiting for my appointment, an older man came in bearing sweet treats for the hairdressers. As soon as one of the ladies saw him coming across the parking lot, she swooped the ice cream bucket of fruited popcorn that I'd brought behind the reception desk.

I wondered why she did this, and later she explained that in the past, whenever the guy came in, he robbed the lollipop basket, meant for kids, and stuck fistfuls of them into his pockets. So now, they hide the basket from him. They were afraid he'd help himself to the popcorn, too, so they hid it from him.

While I was at the shop, I bought two haircut gift certificates for Mother (which became her ninth twelve-days-of-Christmas gift), and a gallon storage bag of peanut brittle for Hubbie (one of the hairdressers Mother made it).

When I left the shop, I went to the store two doors down to buy a jar of homemade peach preserves for Mother as a twelve days gift.

It was a little after noon by the time I got back home, so I fixed a lunch of Ramen noodle soup, Italian cream cheese ball, and crackers for Mother, and leftovers for Hubbie and me.

After lunch, Hubbie and I made three more etched Christmas ornaments. One was for the arts council director, one was for our veterinarian (which will be included with a bucket of fruited popcorn), and one was for his friend.

Around 2 p.m., Mother's physical therapist arrived. He really put her through her paces today...using weights on her legs to do 20 lifts, lying on her bed to do leg lifts, stepping up and down at the stairs, walking to her house, and practicing getting in and out of the van.

Hubbie offered the therapist a bite of his bucket of fruited popcorn, and he exclaimed how much he liked it. So I promised to make a bucket of it to give him when he returns on Thursday.

I learned today that the hairdresser who cuts Mother's hair has also cut the therapist's hair since he was a little boy. He was full of praise for her. Small world.

When he left, Mother and I watched "Polar Express," on a DVD that arrived in the packages today. While I watched the movie, I made the caramel sauce for the fruited popcorn...Hubbie had popped the corn, cut up candied cherries, and broke pecans for it earlier in the day.

Bad news: just as I had completed the popcorn, I got a telephone call from a high school classmate. He was calling to relay the information that another of our classmates..a man...had died of a heart attack this afternoon. I know what folks mean when they say they have a heavy heart That's exactly how this news hit me...like I was carrying a lead weight in my chest. He is the seventh of the 26 members of our 1960 graduating class to pass away. It's scary. We seem to be losing one classmate every year, now.

When the movie was over, it was time to heat leftover spaghetti with sauce for supper, which we had with coleslaw, cottage cheese, and slices of sourdough bread.

Shortly after supper, Mother's hairdresser arrived. It took her less than ten minutes to cut Mother's hair. When I told her who Mother's therapist was, she was as full of praise for him as he had been for her. She said she was sort of a second mother to him, and helped him through a rough patch when his parents divorced when he was young. She often cut his hair for free as her way of helping him afford to go to college. She's very proud of him.

Finally, around 6 p.m., I was ready to relax and spend he evening in front of TV. We watched a movie first, after which Mother went to bed. And then Hubbie and I watched our favorite college basketball team play to a win.