Getting close

Christmas is just around the corner, and we have been busy.  As I mentioned in a previous post, this is the year of making presents for people.  So one of the favorite things to make is pepper jelly from our home-grown peppers and my mother's recipe.  I chopped and my wife cooked enough to fill a few dozen jars with red and green jelly. We even made labels for the top and will give them to friends who attend our open house party on Boxing Day.

This evening, my wife was putting the icing on a wonderful orange pound cake that she decorated with marzipan candies.  That cake was going to her home group meeting.  I am hoping for a small slice when she gets home.  She has baked every Wednesday for this group for about five years.  It's what she likes to do, and the people at the meeting seem to really appreciate it.  A couple more cakes will be forthcoming over the weekend as gifts to some elderly couples we know.

In another spurt of inspiration,  we decided to make some hand scrub as gifts.  It sells for quite a bit of money in the city gift shops and is in just about every restaurant rest room downtown.  So we made some using epsom salts, olive oil with orange-clove fragrance and another with vanilla-almond scent.  It was easy to do and looked really great when we were done.

About the only sad note is that a friend who has been active in both AA and Al-Anon for decades was diagnosed on Monday with pancreatic cancer.  We don't know the stage or any details but know that if it can be beaten, our friend will manage to do it.  

And the parents-in-law are fragile but doing reasonably well. I took Pop for a ride on Sunday to see the lights and to get him a milk shake.  He is starting to lose some of his mental acuity, alternating between making sense and senseless babble. One of the nurses said that the main thing keeping him alive is the lactulose that prevents a buildup of ammonia in his blood due to his cirrhotic liver. I see them continuing to decline. But I think that both of us have come to terms with the inevitable. 

I know that many of you are feeling the crunch of the holidays.  We feel much less stressed this year and really grateful.  We are actually having fun with being "elves".  Who knew?