21.III.07 - MoM

Again, I did not accomplish much today and don't know where the time went. I did get the rest of the rotiss chicken vacuum sealed. Also, sealed the Schwan meatloaf pieces. And, I have another pot of good chicken broth cooking on the stove. Will cool it overnight in the sunroom and if it is "jellied" tomorrow, I will consider it done and ready to freeze. Otherwise, I will cook it down some more.

I ordered 3 easy x-word books from Amazon last week. It was hard to tell from the pictures the size of a couple of ones. They came today and I am delighted as they are the 8 ½ X 10 or is it 11" that I like so much. They are easy to read even without my glasses and just challenging enough to keep my brain churning and make me think. I keep them in the bathroom. However, I should live so long to finish all of these -- 2 books of 200 each and one of 500! They are NYTimes and edited by Will Shortz, my favorites. They are just in time, too, as I only have 5 left in my current book. I might keep one in the living room as that could be enough to woo me away from so much Freecell.

Tomorrow or the next day, I should receive my new AeroGarden but will wait until Charlie is here to set it up. After doing my first one Christmas Day, he is now experienced. I saw in another catalog that they have a new selection for the tomatoes with 3 different kinds in one planting. The one I have only has one kind of mini. I am looking forward to getting it going.

For some reason I had gotten the slicer in my brain as a Mandoline-type thing instead of the one I bought last year. I don't know if Sandy explained how come I park it at their place. The little old one we had for years was usually only used to slice bread when I was using my bread machine a lot, but it was falling apart and needed two sets of hands to use. When I got the new one I soon decided I was too lazy to clean it for slicing for only one person, so I sent it home with them and they slice what little I need done out there.

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Tonight's letter is a continuation of a letter to Sandy and Bob, started the day after Christmas and mailed on 30.XII.84 -- our first Christmas in Saalfelden.

I also got a doll for Christmas. When we were in Kitzbühl another day last week, I fell in love with a "costume" doll. Later, saw the same ones in a kit form for a little less, but this one was beautifully made. Friends from DoD's office days (Charlie Buxton) are heavily into doll collecting -- I am sure I showed you the picture of their Swiss doll. His letters are getting me interested in it and as you know, I always did enjoy dolls. This one was named "Sophie" but I am not fond of that name. I remembered Dan saying that every German family should have a "Gabi" so I renamed her. (I presume there are Austrian Gabies.)

I think I told you we had invited the Wontrobas for a Sunday. We were going to use the plum pudding. Herr Wontroba came by a few days before and showed us a list full of prescriptions for his wife for a bad eye and sinus infection and said they would not be able to make it, and that they would also have to postpone the Second Christmas Day invitation. I was not all that unhappy even tho we like them a lot. Then one evening last week they came by with a big pot of azaleas and primroses for us and she was better so their invitation is back on (today). We had been in Kitzbühl all day and they had been by several times looking for us. They didn't want to bother us in the evening (about 7 p.m.) but we insisted they come up "for a drink." We were having late dinner of tacos and were on our last drink before dinner. She had a coke and he enjoyed his first drink of American whiskey in a long time. I did not try to get out snacks as I knew they would not stay if I tried. We had a nice visit and they were able to see our decorations. We still have not made it to Italy so I will wait until our passes expire in mid-January before I re-invite them. Still have the plum pudding. Glad we were not on that train to Florence that was blown up. DoD has been dragging his feet on Italian trips, but as you know, that has not made me all that unhappy. We recently cut a planned 10 day trip including Rome back to the Verona-Florence plan. Of course, that does not mean that plans may change again on very short notice. Either tomorrow or Friday we are going to make a pickle run to Vienna. DoD read about the Christmas tree in front of the Rathaus there and it caught his fancy we will include the pickle shopping. [It was great to be able to be spontaneous for travel plans.]

Frau Mänhart called us a little before 6 p.m. Christmas Eve to tell us we should attend the ceremony at the cemetery at 6. It was very unique. It is the custom for everyone to gather at the family graves and bring little trees or evergreen branches with candles on them. Then they stand there with all these lighted trees while the band plays Christmas carols ending with "Silent Night." I think almost every one in town was there. It only lasts for 15 minutes. It was beautiful in the snow. There were only a few graves without even a candle burning, so I want to adopt one next year.