Wednesday, January 1

Once again...HAPPY NEW YEAR!

We were up at 7:30 in anticipation of the worker returning to put the vinyl down in the upstairs bathroom. Skipped my exercises, of course, so I could be dressed before he arrived.

He called around 9:30 to say he had decided to stay home and cut wood for their house, since the weather was going to be fair and somewhat warmer today. He wants to get the wood in before an anticipated possible wintry few days beginning tomorrow.

He said he will come tomorrow instead. Hope so, since it now appears that the cabinet and vanity could be ready by Friday, which means we need to engage a plumber. Now that we're down to the wire, looks like everything is going to pop at once.

Hubbie accompanied Mother to our house around 9:30, and she and I prepared frozen blackeyed peas for simmeing. She diced onions and banana peppers for them, and I seasoned them with cans of chicken broth and beef broth, plus spices...pepper, garlic powder, no-salt seasoning,and paprika.

Mother then made a recipe of coleslaw, while Hubbie washed a bunch of sweet potatoes. I put  the potatoes in the oven around 11 a.m.

While the peas and potatoes cooked, we watched the Rose Parade. Close to noon, I heated servings of ham and some bread, and we were ready to sit down to our good-luck meal by 12:30. It was all delicious and satisfying.

After lunch, Mother and I watched "Happy New Year, Charlie Brown," and "Rudolph's Shiny New Year," both of which I'd recorded on DVR last night.

Afterward, Mother went to her jigsaw puzzle, and Hubbie and I began took down the Christmas decorations, except for the village on the mantel, which will remain up until the end of January. Note: our nearly blind white cat has already done quite a job of removing ornaments from the bottom limbs of the big colorful Christmas tree. Wish she knew how to put them away after she removes them, instead of scattering them all over the living room and dining room.

Later, for supper, we finished the Dragon Soup and the fruit salad. Once again, Mother opted to stay around for a while. We watched a Lifetime channel movie, "Taken for Ransom," an intense mystery. A woman is involved in an auto accident that kills her young son. She falls into a depression, intensfied by alcohol and drugs. Her husband gets frustrated trying to help her. Finally, he decides to leave for a while, taking their daughter. While she is alone in their home, she is kidnapped and held for ransom.

Mother was ready to go home around 8:30, and Hubbie accompanied her. Then he and I watched a couple of episodes of "The Tudors." We saw the first season of this several years ago, but then the following years, I forgot to record them. So now, we are going back and watching the first season again, since we don't remember what happened. We will follow up with the other seasons, since the library has them all.