Wednesday, Dec. 5

Up at 6:30 to get ready to go to water aerobics. Cooler morning, but the pool was wonderfully warm. I left aerobics a little early today, so I could get back home to shower and dress for the "Water Babes" Christmas party and Dirty Santa gift exchange at the Italian restaurant at 11 a.m.

Once I was ready, I went to Mother's house to help her get to the van. At the restaurant, I anticipated using the wheelchair for Mother, but drat, it wasn't in the back of the van. Hubbie must have taken it out for some reason and forgot to put it back in.

So I tried to call him in hopes he'd bring the chair to the restaurant. But my cell phone wouldn't work. I guess the battery was completely dead. Mother had to use her walker, which she's able to do, but it tires her to walk very far, and of course today there were no handicapped spaces close to the building.

About 20 of us attended the party. For lunch, Mother chose quiche and fruit, and I ordered garden veggie pasta and fruit.

Two funny things that happened at the Dirty Santa gift exchange:

One: the first woman to choose a gift got a fuzzy pillow. Just as the young waiter walked into the room, she squeezed the pillow and exclaimed, "Ooh, it vibrates!"

The waiter, eyes wide, stopped dead in his tracks.

We all burst out laughing. As the waiter left, he grinned and said, "I'll leave you to your vibrators, ladies," and shut the double doors behind him.

Two: as I mentioned in yesterday's blog, my exchange gift contribution was a metal star filled with homemade peppermint chocolate bark. So what did I get in return? A metal gift bag with a Santa on the front, in which was a bag of assorted chocolates.

The party ended at 1:30, and as we left, our leader encouraged us to choose from three colors of sparkly Christmas tree bow ornaments. I chose a red one and a gold one for Mother and me.

Mother and I both had more lunch than we could eat, so we brought home a lot of it to add to our supper meal later.

At home, Mother headed to the couch for a nap, and Hubbie and I ran errands. First, we went to the everything's a dollar store to buy four Christmas stockings as the scrapbook club's contribution to a local bank's project of stuffing them with fruits, nuts, and candies for disadvantaged kids.

Next we stopped by the Extension Services office to drop off the stockings, and to pick up booklets from the Holiday Open House that we were unable to attend last Saturday. The booklet features crafts, foods, and drink mix ideas. I'm interested in and want to try some of the ideas.

From there, we went to the library to drop off four movies that we forgot to take back by the due date. We received a letter today reminding us of our lapse. Paid $1.20 late fee. Embarrassing. We've never before been late returning library materials. But this time, in clearing the den for company, I put the movies down in the TV cabinet, and simply forgot about them.

Then we went to an antique store/flea market on Main Street to look for token gifts for the five women in Hubbie's family, who are scheduled to visit Dec. 16. We found pretty white clay angel Christmas tree ornaments on which are printed Biblical quotes, such as, "For unto you a Child is born," and "Peace on Earth, goodwill toward men."

The dentist's office was next, to drop off a form that I finally filled out today, after procratinating for a week or so. I hate filling out forms. This one was required to update my basic information in the office's new computer system.

Last stop was at a discount warehouse store to look for something suitable as a token gift for men, but nothing jumped out at us. Men are very difficult to shop for. We'll try again tomorrow.

It was 4:30 by the time we got back home. Mother hadn't gotten up from her nap yet, but she was awake.

I put pastas and sauce in the oven for supper, which were ready shortly after 5 p.m. After supper, Hubbie accompanied Mother to her house, and we finished the evening watching TV.

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Funny: yesterday, we received by mail a large box containing a 38-piece set of plastic storage ware. I ordered it online, because Hubbie couldn't seem to navigate the site to get the free shipping offer.

In the meantime, without my knowledge, he phoned the company and ordered a 14-piece set. When he told me this, I cancelled my order, or thought I did. Obviously, the cancellation didn't work.

Now, we're expecting another delivery of the second order. We certainly shouldn't ever go for want of storage containers!