Five Days of Christmas

Friday - Margaret picked me up about noon.  We stopped at Macalister's Deli for lunch, and then headed for Hillsboro.  It's always fun to reconnect with Margaret's menagerie.  Squeaky (the cat) and Ferg (Jesse's dog) are sweet critters, very loving.  The weather was cold and damp and grey.

Saturday - We started getting ready for our first Christmas dinner - with Matt & Claire (and their "babies" Barley and Hops) and Jesse & Darby. I finished one baby sweater I was working on, and started another. It wasn't a huge meal, but wonderful turkey and country ham, pinto beans, green beans, corn, and (for Margaret and me) dressing left-over from Thanksgiving.  After dinner, we had our present-opening.  There were some lovely choices and some funny choices - but the highlight was Claire's gift to Jesse - a box of "Beard-a-ments".  These are tiny ornament balls on clips to put in a beard.  Jesse did not think it was quite as funny as the rest of us did, but he was a good sport about it.

Sunday - Jesse had had to work overnight.  He and Matt met at the Waffle House for breakfast, and brought waffles back to the rest of us. Margaret went to church, and the rest of us talked and stayed out of serious trouble.  The cold nasty weather continued, but at least we weren't getting the horrendous snow and bitterly cold of the upper midWest.  Matt, Claire and their doodles left in early afternoon, and we just knitted/read/napped away the rest of the afternoon.  Margaret went to midnight mass and I headed off to bed.

Monday - We left Margaret's about 7, ate at Waffle House before getting on I-24 to drive to Nashville to pick up Jean and her friend, Kay.  We headed to Kate's in western Kentucky, getting there about 11.  Lots of good visiting.  It had been a while since I'd been to Kate's, so it was good for all of us. We had a nice dinner of lasagna, artichoke-heart casserole, home-made French bread, and even some mincemeat pie tarts for desert - an unusual, but delicious Christmas dinner. We got back to Margaret's about 7.  It never got warmer than about the mid30s, but we did at least get to see some good sunshine - first in about 5 days. It made for a nice Christmas present.

Tuesday - We had a surprise visit this morning from a farrier, looking for the folks who needed some horses shoed (shod?).  Jesse and Darby weren't there, but once found, got to the house to get the process started.  Obviously, as I told Margaret, my lack of knowledge about horses is vast.  Guess I'll be picking up more info if Jesse keeps up the horse ownership.  Margaret and I left about 11 to bring me back home.  Because of heavy traffic, we spent most of the trip on US 41, even driving into Chattanooga on surface roads - a very pleasant drive.  And the welcome sunshine made it even better.  We ate a nice Mexican lunch on the way home, Margaret got me back in the apartment, and returned home safely.

It was nice to see lots of family, and I hope to see the rest of them before too much longer.  It was a good holiday.  I hope everybody else had a good one, too.