♫ ♫ Over The River and Through The Woods ♫ ♫

One party to go and we're off! Today I don't have to be anywhere - woohoo! We are going to dinner tonight with Gerre and Barry, and I am shopping for one last gift, but my social services are caught up. I will finish the year with 32 of my required 50 hours under my belt. I've already plotted my remaining 18 in the new year.

Terry and Carol came for dinner on Tuesday. Ted grilled pork tenderloins and I made wild rice, corn, green beans, cole slaw, cranberry jello, apples and cucumbers. Can you tell I was cleaning out the refrigerator as I went? I had mint chocolate chip ice cream and was going to serve Gerre's Christmas cookies but Carol brought the rest of her apple cake from Canasta and we ate that. Seems she was using up her food too.

We never left the dinner table. Ted's family has always been what I call "table sitters." I loaded the dishwasher and stacked the excess and we sat and talked for several hours. We just don't have a lot of one on one (or two on two I guess) time with them. We all are so busy and lots of time are out of town alternately. We enjoyed our evening.

Wednesday morning I went shopping for black slacks, red sweater and flannel nightgown for my 74 year old senior. I didn't think that list was difficult but red sweaters just aren't out there. I finally found one, some charcoal slacks and a blue nightgown that was a heavy knit but I couldn't find flannel. I asked for gift receipts so hopefully she can exchange anything she wants or needs to. Merry Christmas, Dorothy, whoever you are.

Then it was more Canasta! I was in the middle again and missed winning the "middle" prize by just a few points. I'm going to be happy to take a break from Canasta for awhile. I will get to play Shang Hai as soon as we get back in January.

It was off to the Friendship Center to deliver Dorothy's gift on Thursday and then over to the pavilion to help distribute gifts to 66 families sponsored by the Women's Center. Standing on concrete for four hours is as hard as pushing dollies full of boxes and wheeling bicycles out to cars and trucks. Some people are so appreciative they hug you and cry. Others have that entitlement attitude we all have come to recognize. But we smile, wish them all a Merry Christmas and wait for the next family.

I was pretty tired when I finally got home. Ted had defrosted some Italian sausages so that and Bertolli sauce made a quick dinner accompanied by Texas garlic toast. I started up the dishwasher, crashed on the couch and pretty much stayed there until bed.

I'm going to iron today and start getting my clothes together. All the gifts we are taking are sitting on Chris' bed but they'll be gone by the time he gets here. I'll leave his sitting right in the middle of the bed! His parents' house is still for sale and now there are a few others. Maybe they will have success after the first of the year.

It should be a quiet weekend followed by our Bunco Christmas Luncheon, complete with Christmas Jeopardy, on Monday. Then it will be Adios, Amigos on Tuesday.

Christmas gift suggestions: "To your enemy, forgiveness. To an opponent, tolerance. To a friend, your heart. To a customer, service. To all, charity. To every child, a good example. To yourself, respect." ~ Oren Arnold