Just got home from a fantastic dinner at my cousins' place.  We had a turkey dinner and it felt just like Christmas!  Today was a busy, productive day.  I'm trying to get all my Christmas gifts wrapped and ready just in case I get the call to go for my surgery quickly which is what I am hoping and praying for.  Tomorrow I will call and see when my appointment with the surgeon is scheduled for.  We are all anxious to get on with this.

We slept until 8 AM this morning.    I'm finding it hard to get out of bed these days with it being dark and cold.  Boomer was booked in to Pet Mart at 9:30 for his Christmas "beauty treatment".  I have never taken him to the groomers before....we are regulars to the dollar dog wash but with this cold weather I didn't want to be bringing him home wet.  I have never been one to spend a lot on his grooming.  I once had a discussion with another dog owner about what some people spend on their pets' grooming.  Her comment was that there was no way she would spend more on her dogs' grooming than she did on her own.  My sentiments exactly!  I prefer to spend the $3.00 it usually takes to get him clean but today the $30 seemed like a pretty good deal.  So off we went.  Boomer was very excited to be invited on a car ride as car rides usually mean we are going to the off leash park.   So you can understand why he  was mildly confused when we arrived at the pet store parking lot at Beacon Hill.  I took him through the store which was also a very exciting sensory experience for a dog with a hypersensitive nose!  So much to smell and bags and bags of dog food!  We got to the grooming room at the back of the store where two dogs (Bill would call them rodents), one a Shitzu and the other a Yorkie were being groomed and clipped.  The girl at the counter gave Boomer a treat right off the bat so I can see him thinking to himself that this place wasn't so bad!  Food is everything to Boomer!  I then handed over the leash and left knowing that the next few hours weren't going to be enjoyed much by one black lab! I got the call around one to pick him up.  When I got to the grooming room one of the groomers went into the back room to get him.  The door to the back room opened and a black blur flew out like a bolt of lightening.  He had that look in his eye that shouted "get me out of this place!"  He looked great and smelled even better!  As anxious as he was to get out of there the torture wasn't over.  Included in the deal was an opportunity to get his picture taken with Santa Claus!  Pretty good deal actually....for $35 they bathed him, cut his nails, cleaned his ears and took his picture with Santa!

So  I am getting there on "being prepared." My shopping is 99.9% done (I did realized today that I had forgotten a couple things). I have done very little baking this year but I have never been a huge baker at Christmas.    My Christmas cakes and our traditional Christmas pudding, however,  are done.  In years past I have enjoyed the generosity of my students who often brought me samples of their moms wonderful baking.   That won't be happening this year but that's OK.  We really don't need all that stuff anyways!

Tomorrow, a little more wrapping, some phone calls to get things figured out and a workout.   I am thinking I probably won't be having chemo on Tuesday as chemo inhibits heeling after surgery!   Yahoo....won't miss that, especially with the problems I had this last go round with nausea!  A break will be appreciated!