Christmas Is Here

 

Merry Christmas Everyone.  

May your day be merry and bright.

May your heart be light.

Christmas Eve

 The last minute wrapping flurry is happening.  The family Christmas will begin in two hours.

Tonight there will be pizza and cookies, tomorrow Chinese take-out.  And it will all be just right  Who doesn't love pizza and Chinese?

When I was a child we would gather at my grandmother's.  We would wait impatiently for my dad to finish milking so we could head out.  And then after dinner we would wait impatiently again for the dishes to be washed and dried so we could open presents.

There was a gift exchange with a $2 limit.  Totally exciting, both to get a gift and to see who drew your name.

One year my sister, ten years younger than me, got a Fisher Price corn popper push toy and we were all amazed at such a wonderful gift.  I just checked on Amazon - that corn popper is still available, for $24.

My grandmother would give us each red envelopes from the bank.  $1 for the grandkids and $2 for the adults.  One day this fall I was going through drawers and found several of those envelopes, still with the crisp bills inside.

I thought it would be fun to give them to my family for Christmas this year, but, today, I can't find them.

All Those If's

 IF

the Bengals win their last two games

and

if the Denver Broncos lose to the Kansas City Chiefs

and 

if the Miami Dolphins and the Indianapolis Colts each lose at least one mor game

THEN

and only then

The Cincinnati Bengals will be in the playoffs.

ESPN gives them a 10% chance but Bengals fans are ever hopeful.

(But don't forget, in seven weeks pitchers and catchers report for duty.)

Good Week

 It's been a good week.

I talked with the ortho PA and learned that I have two sacrum factures, but no nerve involvement, which is a good thing.  And so, in home PT for now, very conservative to start, to keep from aggravating it again.  This morning we added a few simple exercises.  No walking without the walker or stairs yet.

Patience and PT should get me back to where I was before.  And I was happy with where I was before.  I could walk the hills in my neighborhood, do some easy gardening, do a lot of stairs.

But today I can stand for longer periods of time, am increasing my steps and decreasing the pain meds.  All good things.

And in the meantime, it's almost Christmas.  Steph helped me wrap and she's been so nice with making sure I'm eating good food and have clean laundry, Sarah and Winnie are on their way with the little dogs,  I've loved my tree every single day.

My sweet sister sent me reindeer chow, a lovely recipe that doesn't have powdered sugar or peanut butter.  It's delicious but not messy -  the perfect reindeer chow.

And I always love the Winter Solstice.  The days lengthen so slowly at first, like the earth is holding its breath before it commits to moving forward.

Happy Birthday Again

 

Happy Birthday to Nora - (sorry about her dad's leg in the picture.)  The semester is finished, and we celebrated her birthday today.  What kind of grandmother - I had to ask her if she was 19 or 20.  Twenty it is, she is out of her teens.

There were gifts and goodies, at my house since I'm staying at home these days.  It was just the nicest day for me.

I missed a call from my doctor yesterday afternoon - she will call back on Monday.  Her message said that the MRI showed sacrum fractures, usually treated without surgery but she wants me to see an ortho.  

This gives me time to think of questions before the Monday call, so that's good. And it allows me to relax a little over the weekend since some of the possibilities have been eliminated.

MRI

 I've been having lots of hip pain for the past few weeks, like having to use a walker pain.  So today I had my scheduled MRI.

For reasons that aren't especially relevant, I had it done deep in the Cincinnati Bengals stadium.  Well, ok, it was the first appointment available, and the copay was less that at the hospital.

I thought that might be exciting, but the only exciting thing was seeing a sign on a door saying "Bangals Interview Room."  And a cardboard cutout of Joe Burrow in the scan office.  And maybe the golf cart ride from the entrance to the scan place was ok too.

Getting down and back up my steps, not exciting, but it worked out.  The MRI lasted just twenty minutes, and I'm glad it wasn't longer because my back really hurt on the hard table.

Moving on to other news:  my North Carolina family is picking up a new Subaru Forester Wilderness as we speak.  In a lovely dark green.  They will be traveling for Christmas in style.

A couple of years ago my local family was traveling to Florida for a pre-Christmas vacation when they had transmission problems near Atlanta.  Knowing they would probably need to replace that car soon anyway, and knowing that the repair would be expensive and would take a couple of days out of their short vacation, they hobbled to the local dealership and bought a new car of the same make and model.  The salesman helped transfer everything to the new car and they went on their way.

Happy Birthday

 

Happy Birthday Nora!

If all the grandgirls were lined up in a row, I'd always choose you.