Road Trip!

I awoke at 7:30 AM, after a restless night. It's road trip day, so I am starting with a shave and shower and three cups of coffee (in lieu of breakfast).

The ladies woke up after my shower and commenced their morning ablutions. We gathered everything together and headed out on the road, just after 10:30 AM.

First stop is my Mother's rehab facility. It was a nice surprise to find my brother Joe and his wife Kathy visiting Mom as well. I tried to get enough intel for a Grandma Update for the kids, but not enough has changed to warrant it. She is walking more than 30 feet now, and getting up and standing by herself from the locked wheel chair.

I brought her some of Jake's ginger bread for a treat and Sadie and Lu brought her a fruitcake and some refrigerator magnets they got in Arizona from the Chapel of the Holy Cross. We all stayed until they whisker her away for lunch, then we all headed to her New Baltimore house (the three of us to drop off the fruitcake and magnet presents, and Joe and Kathy to pick up items she had listed she wanted from the house).

BIG MYSTERY!!! My mother has always had a small music cabinet next to her piano for her sheet music. The marks in the rug are still there, but NO CABINET!?! We thought maybe it was moved to allow easier wheelchair access to the hall, but it's not in the house, and not in the garage. Where did it go?

Anyway, with the mystery unsolved, we headed out for Jeremy and Jyl house for a combination Christmas and birthday (Reise and I) celebration. We got to their house about 2:15 PM, just has Jyl was taking her cheese and olive bread out of the oven. Oh, my, that was good. I don't think I'd go to the trouble of baking bread, (Foodie! Foodie!) but a dense Ciabatta bread would work as the base, I'm thinking, so (hint! hint!) if she sends me the recipe I can make this myself.

We exchanged Christmas gifts and everybody seemed to like what they got! Reise especially liked the clothes Lu and Sadie picked out! My loot consisted of a small candle, some oversized jumping jacks and a jack-ball from Riese, a cookbook ("The Cook's Book - Concise Edition) and a black T-shirt with the words, "I'm Blogging This!" printed in white.

Then, it was dinner time. The menu was:

Appetizers: Olive Cheese Bread, Salad & Dressing

Main Dishes: Cheese Manicotti, Beef Stroganoff (for me!)

Desserts: Bumpy Cake, Ben & Jerry's Oxford Cookie Mint and Phish Food (chocolate and marshmallow) Ice Creams.

I really liked the homemade ranch dressing for the salad, BTW.

The beef stroganoff was excellent and, although she had fretted throughout the thickening process, had a perfect sauce. They served me too much to even think about trying the Manicotti, but judging from the amount that was missing from the original huge lasagna pan, it was well received.

I did have a small slice of the Bumpy Cake (just because I was curious) after Riese and I blew out the candles, but passed on the ice cream. Then Riese got her birthday gifts (although my card with more dance lessons money is probably still on the bookshelf; I forgot to get it out).

Joe gave us some rock & roll riffs on his new Christmas guitar and Riese took a turn as well. I did pick up on a somewhat disturbing relationship between my oldest son and his daughter Riese's "Minty My Little Pony" that I would rather not think about. But, hey, look at me and monkeys these days, LOL!

Then, it was time to leave. We pulled out of Port Huron about 7:30 PM and got home at 8:45 PM. Everyone was beat and I personally did not visit much but went straight to bed and book (checking out my new cookbook, actually).