Tuesday, Dec. 3

Today is Granddaughter's birthday. Happy Birthday, Granddaughter!

Slept late this very foggy morning, until around 8 a.m. Skipped my exercises after breakfast, of course, because I'm still coughing. A little sneezing and blowing going on, but not as much. I feel a lot better than I have for the past few days.

Hubbie accompanied Mother to our house around 9 a.m., and as soon as I was dressed and ready, we put a pot of beans on to simmer. Mother diced onions, carrots, and banana peppers, as well as the remaining ham from Thanksgiving, and then I added cans of beef and chicken broth, no-salt seasoning, pepper, paprika, and garlic.

After that, we began work on the "white" Christmas tree in the living room. The first thing we needed to do was put a string on lights on the top portion of the tree, since only the lights on bottom of this pre-lit tree work.

As soon as we got the string on the tree, Hubbie plugged them in. Half of the lights didn't work, even though Hubbie had tried all the strands yesterday, and they worked.

So, we put another strand on the tree. Now there were the two strands of lights we put on it, plus the "pre-lit" ones already on the tree. There's an absolute mass of lights on that upper portion, but ornaments disguise them. If those pre-lit ones on the bottom quit, I'm going to scream.

After lunch, we spent a couple of hours putting ornaments on the tree. When we were done, Hubbie ran a couple of errands. Mother dozed, while I caught up on reading newspapers, made a haircut appointment, talked (very briefly) with one of the scrapbook club members, and played on my e-tablet.

Later, Hubbie peeled potatoes and sliced them in the food processor, and grated a head of cabbage. Mother diced an onion, and then I fried the potatoes and onions, along with seasonings, in a little olive oil, and cooked the cabbage in a little olive oil and chicken broth, plus seasonings.

Mother mixed a batch of cornbread, which I put in the oven, along with a pan of biscuits, and we had supper at our usual 5 p.m. hour. Ordinarily, I would have attended a meeting of the college Friends of the Library executive board tonight, but I e-mailed the president of the board yesterday to explain why I could not attend.

After supper, Hubbie accompanied Mother to her house, and then he and I watched TV, including our favorite college basketball team, as they mopped the floor with their opponents.