On Christmas Eve day we are going to take Mitch to a local nursing home and let each of the residents spend some time with him. We figured if they are there on Christmas Eve they probably don't have any family nearby and might appreciate the distraction of Mitch.

We coordinated to show up around 1:30 PM and spend a couple hours there. The activities director said that would be a good time because they would be finishing up lunch and leaving the dining room, so there would be more people awake and moving around. I think the activities director is even going to post a notice on the bulletin board or put something in the daily activity flyer saying when we will be there and that he is a retired racing greyhound.

We bought some antlers for him to wear to be more festive.



We are going to cook a standing rib roast for Christmas Eve. The roast must be warmed up to room temperature before roasting, so before we leave for the nursing home we will put the roast out on the counter. By the time we return it will be ready to pop in the oven.

I bought one potato and one turnip to roast in the same pan as the meat.

The roast needs to rest for 20 minutes when it comes out of the oven. During this time I will make the Yorkshire pudding. This is basically popovers with a tablespoon or two of the meat juices added to each muffin tin to give them a more savory taste. We also will have a salad to go with the dinner.

Tonight we went grocery shopping for all the food we need for the holiday. On a whim after we checked out I bought an instant lottery ticket. I won another lottery ticket. We went to the customer service desk to get our ticket, and that ticket won $10! I buy an instant lottery ticket about three times per year.