Caroling in the cold

I turned the bedroom temperature down from 21 to 20 Celcius. You wouldn't think it would make much of a difference. Well, instead of having hot flashes, I was cold all night. And Chris kept rolling in the opposite direction, taking the covers with him. I did not sleep well. So in the morning, he crept out of bed to let me sleep in. But I wasn't asleep. So I got up. I drank a quart of lemon water while reading e-mail. I listened to a interview with a man who survived cancer while doing my exercises and putting up window clings. They were stickier than I expected, and I wondered if they were going to be hard to peel off later. I sent messages to Myra and Faye. I looked up a recipe for cardamom bread. I found one that had to be reworked for bread machine usage. I proofed the yeast as it said, in milk with cardamom. That did not sound right to me and the yeast would not rise. I threw it in the bread machine with the other ingredients and put the machine on the dough cycle. I made and ate breakfast. I printed 6 more copies of the song sheet. I packed up my trombone and stand. I walked to Janelle's house. We practiced together. She played well. I chatted with her parents. She gave me a large piece of hicama. I came home and put it in the fridge. The bread dough had risen quite a bit. I rolled it into 4 ropes and braided them into a wreath shape. While it was rising, I played Christmas music on my laptop. I read e-mail, and read about Dirty Santa alternatives. Chris did laundry. I spread a mixture of yolk and coconut cream on the bread wreath, sprinkled slivered almonds on it, then baked it. I practiced some more. I looked for my sugarless sweet potato recipe on all the computers, and could not find it. I found a box to house the scarf that I bought for the dirty santa game. But there was not time to wrap it. Chris and I took a shower, and then it was time for caroling. I was kind of in a bad mood because I was getting somewhere with my to-do list and did not want to stop and lose momentum. But I had promised, so I collected my 6 copies of the song sheet and walked down to the chapel. Three ladies were standing there, reading a song sheet and looking for recordings of the music online. One lady had a blue tooth speaker that she could send the songs from her phone. They found links for each of the songs on the sheet. We sang some of them to the music. The lyrics did not always quite fit, but it was nice to have the music play while we sang. Anna came and then we hit the road. We walked all through lower housing, knocking on doors and singing to whoever seemed to be home. Some people did not open their doors. Some did, some offered us a donation (which we did not accept), and at one place, a young boy offered us a bowl of gluten-free oreos. Then Anna had to go to a dinner with her husband so she asked us to sing at her house before they had to leave. Anna gave us a ride to the last door of upper housing. Mandy joined us. We sang for Anna's family and for Janelle's family. Then we hit families on the way down that were home. When we got to Carolyn's house, we were done. And it was dark and freezing. I went home to have a bowl of bean soup. I wrapped the cooled bread wreath and put it in the fridge. I read e-mail for a bit, then we watched a movie with Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts. Then we watched 3 or 4 episodes of 3rd Rock from the Sun. We wanted to watch Big Bang Theory, but Netflix only had those on DVD. I continued my search on how to avoid Dirty Santa games. I don't like being required to spend money on a gift that has a high chance of going to someone who doesn't want it. But I still did not find any strategies for avoiding it or the disappointment that comes with seeing someone else not want the gift I brought. I wondered if the game was invented by the retail establishment to sell more gifts. Then I noticed it was almost midnight, so I posted to my blog and went to bed.
* Anna took this pic. The blue tooth speaker is on the step, just out of sight. *