What a busy day. I got a lot of prep work done for the dinner tomorrow. Chelsea and I went for a lovely walk this afternoon. It was rather foggy and a bit damp but the temperatures were pleasant enough and Chelsea was certainly a happy little puppy.

This evening, before dinner, Dick, Jim and I exchanged our presents and opened the ones we got from Bret. That is always fun. We were all very happy with our gifts. I got some beautiful jewelry from Dick again, Frank Mc Court's new book and two DVDs of classic horror and sci fi movies. Jim got both Dick and me new wireless keyboards and mouses. It will be so nice not struggling with those cords AND the kitties. Bret sent sweatshirts, a cookie jar and a set of bath and shower stuff. It will be usefull as I have been taking soaky baths to ease up the muscle aches in my legs.

We had pizza tonight. I fixed it the way I used to for the kids and I when I was in a hurry.

Defrost a loaf of frozen bread and let it rise. Then squishit out into somewhat of a round on a pizza stone (a cookie sheet or pizza pan will work as well).

Spread sauce on it (I had some leftover spaghetti sauce but tomato sauce sprinkled with oregano, garlic and any other Italian spices works as well).

Top it with mushrooms, peppers, pepperoni (or anything else you like on pizzas. I used to slice hot dogs on it for a meal for the boys and me.)

Top with grated cheeses and bake it for about 45 minutes at 375 degrees.

Boy is it ever good and hearty.

Tomorrow the choir is singing at the 9:30AM Mass, then I will stop at Mother's and take her presents to her. Dick, Brenda, Bobbie and Bill will be here at about 1:00. We will visit and do presents and then eat at about 4:00. It should be a very nice Christmas. I hope we talk to Bret, Bart and Leslie as it is a special day. Wish they could be here for the ham, mac and cheese and Triple Chocolate Poteen Upside Down Cheesecake.



Merry Christmas Eve.


Mary

It was nice today. The freezing rain that had been predicted did not come. Thank heavens. I made the cheesecake today. I also added the yeast and additives to the Lemon Balm and Marigold wines. Then this evening, I joined the crew at church and we finished decorating for Christmas. It looks great. I will take the camera on Sunday to get pictures. After we finished a bunch of us went over to the Firehouse Pizza for something to eat and some visiting.

The package from Bret arrived today. He didn't get it off until Monday and was a bit afraid that is might be late, but here it is. Tomorrow night, Jim and Dick and I will exchange our gifts and I get to open the presents from Bret too. That is always fun. We will have to fill the stockings sometime during the day. I get to stay home ALL day again.

I am afraid that I am not very inventive tonight. Perhaps tomorrow, I can think of something more interesting to write about. In the meantime, be safe and happy.

May

Today was quite pleasant. The temperatures got ALL the way UP to 36 degrees. Chelsea and I hit the streets this afternoon again. We went just the same short walk that we did yesterday. If the weather doesn't betray us, we will go a bit further tomorrow.

Dick and I did our Christmas grocery shopping this morning. We also delivered the candy that Dick presents to the Eastern Shores Library people.

I am working on two new scratch batches of wine now that we have bottled the Currant and there are empty gallon jugs. I mixed up the Lemon Balm and also the Marigold. When I free up more gallon jugs, I will start the Wild Grape.

We had our final choir practice before Christmas tonight. We are singing at the 9:30AM Mass. We are singing Ding Dong Merrily on High and Mary Did You Know. Both lovely Christmas songs. I still remember listening to my Dad sing along with that choir on Christmas. Dad had a beautiful voice. At one time he belonged to a Barbershop Chorus. I remember there was a competition held in Sheboygan at some point in my childhood of Barbershop Choruses. I know that Dad's group didn't come in first but I KNEW that it was the best one.

I will have as much of my meal done or ready to pop in the oven before Mass on Sunday. As a matter of fact I can make the dessert tomorrow. We will have a Kunert Christmas. Too bad that Leslie, Bill and the girls can't be here. I will also miss my Bret and Bart at this time of year. If I had my druthers, time and space would not mean anything if it would bring us all together at ANY time but especially at Christmas. I miss my boys. It is so hard to accept the fact that my baby is 34 years old. I still can remember those littles face when I brought them home from the hospital.

When Bret was born, we had a black cat named Samantha with the most beautiful coat and emerald green eyes. By the time he was born, she had already given birth to two litters of kittens. Anyway, I sat down in the living room with Bret in my lap and Sam jumped up to see what I had. She kind of crept over and sniffed the top of his head. Just then, he let out a little cry. She sat bolt upright and stormed away in total disgust. Someone said she probably felt that he was OK if I really wanted him, but her babies were much cuter AND they were on their own at 6 weeks old.

Bart on the other hand came home to a big brother and no cat as I remember. When he came home, my neighbor, Joyce Nusser came over to see him. She took one look at his little face all scrinched up and red as a beet and said "He looks just like Mr. Magoo." The name stuck for a while. I still think of him as Magoo once in a whild. He was actually a beautiful baby with a flawless complection and just a slight fuzz on his perfectly shaped head.

Have a nice Friday.


Mary

Only three more days until Christmas. Bret called last night. His packages both arrived. However, he sounded so sad and I asked him what was wrong. He told me that his friends' (Earl and Janelle) daughter, Stephanie, who was only 14, was killed in an automobile accident on the way to school on Tuesday. Everyone is, of course, devastated. All I could do was tell him that I loved him, express my sympathy and tell him that I would put the family on the prayer chain at church. Which I did. Would you all pray for this cirle of people too. The funeral is Friday. I can't thin of any more sad a Christmas.

On a lighter note, I took Mother to the eye doctor today and the news is good there. She is stable and he is very pleased. We are always so grateful after the Macular Degeneration episode. She said that she sees about as well distance wise without her glasses as with. That is pretty amazing for an 89 year old woman.

I cleaned the refrigerator and freezer today. Now I will have room for Christmas stuff. We will try to eat up the odds and ends before Saturday. I did remember to take out the ham and put it in the fridge to thaw. Most things really have to be prepared on Saturday or Sunday.

Cadfael's Book of Days said today. "While you live, there is no way of escape from your part in humanity."

I remember a Christmas years ago when living in Santa Ana Heights. My neighbor and I went out to get our trees. We took our pickup. Our plan was to get trees about our height. She was a bit shorter than I, so our plan was for trees about 5 and a half to 6 feet. But when we got into the lot they look different and we were trying to look at shape and fullness and holding our hands up to our foreheads but we must have slanted our hands up. When we got home, those trees were huge and we were totally surprised. My ex and her husband had to cut some off of the bottom so they would stand up in the livingroom. But shey sure were pretty.

Have a nice Thursday. We shop in the morning.

Love

Mary

Today was a rather quiet day. The only excursion that I made outside of the yard was to get my hair cut.

I am all finished with wrapping presents. Actually, I still have Mother's. I have a couple of small things for her but I ordered Galtee Sausages and Irish Bacon and intend to give her an Irish Breakfast for her main present. I will give her the bacon,sausages and fresh soda bread or scones (I have not decided which to bake as of yet. I will do that on Saturday.)

We were watching some game show and they asked a question as to where you send children when they are naughty. It reminded me of Bret when he was in kindergarten.

He had the most wonderful teacher in Kindergarten. Her name was Miss Gamel. She had a class of 16 little boys and 4 little girls. One of the little boys went home and told his Dad that the teacher was a "big beautiful blond." Needless to say that Dad came to teacher conferences.

She did love her students and was infinately patient with them. By the end of the year they knew that if there was a "shy E" at the end of a word - the vowel said "its own name." Think about it.

Anyway. Bret ended up hysterical in the principal's office. The kids were using rather bad words. Miss Gamel said that some of them were REALLY bad and she finally said that the next person that said a bad word would be sent to the principal's office. Bret said "poopy". So she sent him to the office.

He just disintegrated. Miss Gamel felt terrible and the office told her that she shouldn't have done that. But I agreed that she should have. She would have lost all credibility with the class and Bret learned a valuable lesson. He was trying to show off and learned timing if nothing else.

So that is my story about being sent to the principal's office.

Have a great Wednesday.

Love

Mary

I am all done with the decorating except for spreading candles around. I think it looks mighty festive. Then tonight I joined a crew at church and we did much of the decorating for Christmas there. We exchanged the purple ribbons in the wreaths with red and took down the purple hangings and replaced the Jesse Tree with the Nativity Icon. Friday, we will put up the creche and trees and finish all the beautiful things.

Tomorrow, I have to get my hair cut. The next day, Mother goes to the eye doctor and Thursday, we shop. I need to be sure to have my list complete because I don't want to make another trip after that.

We had meatloaf again tonight. Tomorrow, we will have meatloaf sandwiches. One of the main purposes of meatloaf is the sandwiches. My ex husband did not like meatloaf. Isn't that the silliest thing you ever heard. However, his mother, who was a very good cook, made awful meatloaf. She bought the cheapest meat available and served it in the pan she cooked it just oozing fat. As I said she was a good cook. You could not beat her chili or her pies. I use her pie crust recipe.

We bottled the current wine - finally and now I have gallon jugs so I can start a scratch wine. Either lemon balm or marigold. I also have wild grapes to brew.

We will be busy with wine all winter.

It was 1 degree when I woke up this morning. This is January weather. Wonder if this will last ALL winter. Where is global warming.

Love

Mary

Cold. Cold. Cold. It was 4 degrees when I got up this morning at 6AM. I am kind of glad that this is happening when I can't walk anyway. It is supposed to warm up a "bit" next week and I think Chelsea and I will attempt a couple of short walks later in the day, starting Tuesday.

I went to the 8AM mass. I took the winter coat, boots, mittens, hat and snow pants that I bought for a kindergarten boy who need them. Was that ever fun. I don't have little people to buy for anymore. He wanted a Packer jacket or a blue one. I got him a Packer jacket. It is Christmas and he is only 5 or 6 and should get his wishes filles. Then I visited with Mother for a bit.

Bobbie, Jim and I went shooting this afternoon. Bobbie did great, Jim didn't bother bringing up his sheets and I was EH! Not AWFUL but nothing the be proud of either. Oh well, practice makes perfect they say.

The tree is all decorated and looks beautiful. I still have some decorating to do, none of the Nativity Scenes are up yet but feel that the hardest part is over with.

Tomorrow the crew will start getting everything ready at church. We are doing it in two sessions. First getting everything out and checking the condition and making final decisions on the end result so that on Friday night we can just take down Advent and put up Christmas. Fr. Gene says we can put the creche on the altar this year. It has been over on the side and taking up valuable space in the choir area for the past two years. I much prefer it on the altar as the kids can see it better and will be more likely to ask to come up.

We had bean soup and Irish Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato sandwiches for supper. Boy was that a good idea. It was the bean soup that I made with the sugar cured ham that we brought back from Kentucky. I have one more meal of that left in the freezer. I will have to see if there are any sugar cured hams produced or imported locally.

It is time for bed. Only on week until Christmas. What a year. It is hard to realize that in two weeks it will be 2006 already. I remember that when I was very young I used to think that when it was the year 2000 I would turn 60 and it seemed so very far away. And NOW here it is 2005. Just a blink in the whole of time. Sometimes even to me.

Love

Mary