Wednesday, Dec. 25

Merry Christmas!

We were up around 7:30. I skipped my exercises this morning after breakfast, of course. Went ahead and got dressed and ready to start lunch preparations.

Hubbie accompanied Mother to our house around 9 a.m., and she prepared veggies to add to a beef roast. I seasoned and browned the roast and put it in the slow cooker. Surrounded it with carrots and onions, and added beef and chicken broths.

While the roast cooked, Mother and I watched "The Nutcracker," with Mikhail Baryshnikov and "Scrooge," starring Alastair Sim. Hubbie found other things to do, of course.

Toward noon, I got phone calls from both of my sons. I enjoyed talking with both of them, as well as a couple of my grandchildren whom I haven't seen in a long time. The young people are very busy with their own lives, so I understand why it's difficult for them to find time to visit very often.

Afterward, I finished lunch preparations...boiling potatoes (that Hubbie had peeled) and mashing them, and making gravy. The roast was very tender and good, served with the potatoes and gravy, asparagus, deviled eggs, and fruit salad, as well as homemade bread that Sis provided.

After dinner, Mother went to a new 1,000 piece Christmas themed jigsaw puzzle that Daughter gave her, Hubbie began reading his new John Grisham novel, and I caught up on writing blogs. After a while, I joined Mother at the jigsaw puzzle. She was having trouble putting the border together, so I helped her do that. We worked a while longer on it, but didn't get very far with it.

Had a late supper of sandwiches and chips, and a choice of desserts, then started watching TV. Around 7 p.m., Daughter arrived. When she hadn't shown up for lunch, I thought she had changed her mind about coming up. But she was just delayed, because she was visiting her daughters and enjoying lunch with them, and playing with her grandchildren and their new outdoor toys.

She will visit with us for a couple of days, which will be fun. I don't have anything special planned, but we'll find stuff to do, I'm sure...like working on that huge jigsaw puzzle.

Spent the evening watching TV, of course. Tonight's fare was the two-part "Bonnie and Clyde" mini-series. It was a strange movie to watch on Christmas, but it was the only thing recorded in our DVR, and there was nothing else on TV that we hadn't already seen.

Around 9:30, Mother finally decided to go home. She had spent the evening nodding off to sleep, anyway..