Wednesday, Dec. 21

Up at 7:30, and after breakfast, I presented Mother with her tenth twelve-days-of-Christmas gift...a bottle of combination shampoo/body wash. I knew she was running out of the sample bottle from the hospital she's been using, and thought she'd want to open a new bottle. She didn't. She wanted to keep it with her other gifts in the wooden sleigh I provided, and just squeeze the last drops from the sample bottle until Christmas.

So, off to the bathroom we went, so Mother could shower and get dressed. Afterward, we went to the kitchen and made a batch of peppermint/chocolate bark to give to the staff at Caring Hands Hospice.

Then I snapped a photo of Mother with one of the cats snuggled in her lap. I uploaded that to my social network page, along with a photo of one of the etched Christmas ornament.

After that, I changed into my exercise clothes and did a treadmill session and resistance exercises. Sis had e-mailed to say she left home around 10 a.m., so I expected her to arrive here around noon. I hoped to be showered and dressed by the time she got here, but she was already visiting with Mother when I came downstairs.

Since it was noon by now, I heated the leftover salmon chowder for lunch, which I served with Italian cream cheese ball and cracker. Sis was glad for the chowder, because she was in the mood for soup on this semi-chilly day.

Following lunch, Sis accompanied Mother to her house, where they spent the afternoon, while Hubbie and I ran errands...to the newspaper office to drop off the word search puzzle (completed by me this time); to the post office; and to the beauty salon, where, at the request of Mother's hairdresser, I visited the bathroom to see the new paint color...deep purple. I never would have thought of painting a bathroom purple, but it looks good. The hairdresser was so excited about renovations to the shop, that she had to show me the floor plan, and the the paint and flooring samples.

From there, we went to a farm store to pick up a couple of items for Sis; then to the everything's a dollar store to buy a gift tin to put the peppermint bark candy in; to the WDCS, where I hoped to get one-pound ankle weights for Mother to use in exercising (but they only had three-pound ones). Then we went to the Caring Hands office to deliver the candy.

Since the medical supplies store is downstairs, we checked to see if we could find ankle weights there. No dice, but a clerk suggested we try the sports store. Duh! Why didn't I think of that. So we returned o the strip mall where the sports is located, where a helpful young woman showed us eight and ten pound weights. When we remarked that my elderly mother couldn't use those, she pointed out that the bands have pockets that each contain one-pound weights. So I bought the eight-pound ones...Mother can use them at one pound, and I can use them at five pounds.

Back home, Hubbie and I made a batch of fruited popcorn for Mother's physical therapist, who is scheduled to visit tomorrow. Sis and Mother came back shortly afterward.

Later, Mother, Sis, and I worked together to fix a supper of a choice of hamburgers or turkey burgers on buns, with sides of leftover corn/green bean medley, and fresh coleslaw.

TV fare tonight included a movie in TNT channel's mystery series, "Deck the Hall," based on a novel by Mary and Carol Higgins Clark.