Three Beautiful Things 12/09/16: Mom Wraps Gifts, By the Grace of God, Making Mom's Wishes Come True

1. I got wrapping paper and other supplies out of the Christmas Preparation Room (CPR). Carol found more paper upstairs. Christy brought over rolls of wrapping paper from her house. Together, we helped Mom get set up at the kitchen table and she slowly and meticulously wrapped the several gifts that were in the CPR. Meanwhile, I took the tubs and boxes no longer needed from the CPR and put them back upstairs, but not in the storage closet. They are ready to be packed up again when it's time to take down the tree and the household decorations.

2.  I arrived back to Mom's after doing some grocery shopping, buying stamps at the Post Office, and picking up a bag of de-icer at Ace. As I steered into the driveway, there was Christy putting up Mom's outdoor light display and I joined in to give her the tiniest bit of help. By the grace of God, we figured out how the remote control device hooks up and operates so that Mom can wait until dark in the afternoon to turn on her outdoor light display and turn it off when she goes to bed at night.  By the way, Mom had despaired that no one was able to get the tricky display up around her living room mirror, but, undaunted, Christy rushed in where angels fear to tread, and decorated Mom's mirror with garland and lights, complimenting the mirror's moose-themed Christmas card holder that I had put up because all it required was resting it on a nail that is permanently banged into the wall.

3. Around nine o'clock this morning I made "The Best Steak Marinade in Existence", found here, soaked a pork steak in it, and later in the afternoon made Mom a dinner of pork steak, fresh cranberry sauce, noodles with pork gravy, fresh green beans and bacon, and a green salad. Mom has a standing request in for cranberry sauce -- she loves it with turkey, chicken, or pork --  and she lit up earlier in the day during her reading of the Yoke's ad that both bacon and fresh green beans were on sale, so it was fun to fix a dinner that made use of meat in the basement freezer, used up an already opened bag of noodles, and fulfilled a couple of Mom's specific wishes.