Wednesday, Dec. 12

12-12-12...supposedly a lucky day for getting married, having a baby, etc. Around here, it was pretty much just another ordinary day, which in itself is pretty lucky, I'd say.

Slept late this morning, until around 8 a.m. Dressed in my exercise clothes, but didn't do a session after breakfast. Instead, Hubbie accompanied Mother to our house, where I presented her with the first of her twelve days of Christmas gifts. Today's gift was a bag of her favorite holiday fruit...Little Cuties mandarin oranges.

After that, she went to the kitchen to dice veggies and ham for eleven-bean soup. When she finished, I started the pot of soup, with spices, simmering. This is one of three soups we'll serve to Hubbie's family on Sunday.

Then Mother mixed egg substitute and milk into a can of sweet potato pie filling. The mixture made enough to fill a deep dish in which Mother had put a prepared pie crust. Pie crusts have shrunk (just like five-pound bags of sugar, which are now four pounds), so there was just enough to fit the dish. The pie is our contribution to the Master Gardner potluck Christmas party tomorrow.

Once the pie had baked, it was lunchtime. After lunch, Mother headed to the couch for a nap, and I finally did stair stepping, resistance bands, and weights exercises. While I did this, and then got ready for the day (what was left of it), Hubbie ran errands...to a vet's office to take advantage of an offer to buy two containers of flea treatment and get a third free; to the newspaper office to drop off this week's word search puzzle contest; to the art gallery to leave an itemized list of supplies for the graham cracker cookie Christmas house workshop for reimbursement, and to pick up a bag full of milk cartons for a cookie house workshop at the preschool tomorrow night, and finally to City Hall to drop the milk cartons off to the Literacy Council director.

We spent the afternoon doing this and that...Hubbie cleaned the sunroom a little, so it won't be so chaotic when his family visits, and I got various gifts ready for the next couple day's events...a birdfeeder and a bag of birdseed for the Dirty Santa gift exchange at the Master Gardener Christmas party tomorrow; and three jars of candy apple jelly...one each for our friends, whom we'll meet for lunch on Friday, and one for the secretary of a business we deal with.

Did other household things until Mother finished her nap. She got up about 3:30, and we watched several animated Christmas features on DVD, until suppertime. For supper, we had the hallacas venezolanas, which are much like tamales, given to us by my ESL student.

I used my steamer to heat the hallacas, as instructed by my student. There were three of them, wrapped in corn husks, and tied with string. One had a small red ribbon attached to indicate it was the hottest, another had a pink ribbon, to indicate mild, and one had only string, to indicate it had no peppers in it. This one was for Mother.

The process for making these Venezuelan Christmas delicacies takes about four hours, so they were a very special gift, and they were delicious. Served them with a choice of tortilla or vegetable chips, and dishes of canned peaches for dessert.

Afterward, Hubbie accompanied Mother to her house, and then he and I watched TV for the rest of the evening.