Christmas Day may be busy after all

[Lucy]

Hi all,

Thought I'd give you a little FURTHER update. This evening, Sis asked Mom if she'd be willing to go out to Katy to have Christmas dinner with my bil's family. It's a good ways out I-10, so usually, Mom is fearful about going that far away. We've always been invited, but just couldn't ever get her to make it, and sometimes, she wouldn't start saying she didn't feel like it until the last day or so, so then, we'd have to cancel, so eventually everyone just gave up including Mom, and we'd turn down the invitation from the git-go. This time, have a feeling that Mom will keep up her end of the bargain. We'll take two cars so that she can get back home before it's been dark too long, and Sis will probably come back with us and over here while bil stays with his family for a little longer visit time with them. This should be ideal! We'll be taking some of the food, so won't have to worry about what to eat. Mainly, just worry about someone using the wrong serving piece on the allergen-free stuff. May stuff a bit of ham in me before we leave, and carry a rice bar or two in my bag, just in case.

Mom and I will probably stay in the kitchen to eat since we'll have the wheelchair, so perhaps I'll be aware of what might've been contaminated, and avoid that.

Main thing is that we'll all be together. Who knows but what this will the last year that we can do that?

Also, they're fixing a gf turkey, a Butterball, I think, and will be using a gf chicken broth to brine it in..hmmm! I asked my sis what she thought about doing a rice dressing made of...dah..rice! I've even got some gf spicy sausage in the freezer that I tried last time at Whole Foods -- delicious! May taste more like a "dirty rice" dish than dressing, but perhaps we can work on that before Christmas.

Sis has the book with the rice dressing recipes, so will have to see if any of them can be done with arborio rice as I just picked up a bag recently. Really got that for trying something different as an Italian dish other than rice pasta, but can always try that with a new bag.

Now, I'll have to figure out how we'll be able to make it Christmas to the senior adult place. It would have to be right before we left for Katy, probably, or else maybe tomorrow, but I'm thinking we'd better try to go both days. Unfortunately, Mom's friend has had a "cold" for two weeks, or at least she had the other day. If we spend more time there tomorrow, then we can make our short visit Christmas Day, and head on out to Katy. Whew, and I was thinking we'd be sitting here doing nothing!! Ha!

A great big church here is actually going to hold a 4 PM service Christmas Eve down at the Toyota Center, the big new basketball arena that took over after Rockets moved from Compaq Center. Sis said that I could go if I wanted to -- have never been inside, but I said that I'd like for Mom to be able to see the new building, even if it meant we'd have to turn around and come home without seeing the entire service. People can more easily come and go in a big place like that without disrupting things, and I'm sure people understand when one has a disabled person to attend.

Pretty sure we'll do our usual gift exchange and dinner for Christmas Eve over at Sis's and Bil's house after that.

Weather is supposed to be sunny and high of about 70 on Christmas Day, and nice the rest of this week, I think. Guess we'll not get the nice Christmas Eve night snowfall that Houston had last year. That was such a thrill to have it on Christmas Eve like that, and think it was actually still snowing lots at midnight, so technically, it snowed on Christmas Day. It was nice powder, too.

Sooo, all of a sudden, it's getting busier around here!

Yours, Luce