Mom was very surprised, but seemed very pleased with her new chair. I am also pleased. I told Mom we wanted to get her something she would use. She assured me that she will use it and might take a lot of naps in it. She says it is comfortable and she says she loves and thanks all of her children. Her care manager said “Your children love you, too.” Mom agreed.
Mom will come to our house and be part of our family Christmas tomorrow afternoon.
Mom wishes everyone a Merry Christmas.
Grandma has no trouble finding helpers to bake cookies. There is something very exciting about baking cookies, especially for Grandma when grandchildren want to help. For me, the smell of cookies in the house makes me excited, too.
MC and J helped mix and cut out the cookies in lots of Christmas shapes: Christmas trees, snowmen, gingerbread men, stars, reindeer, and angels. They were decorated beautifully with icing and sprinkles. There was no doubt they passed the taste test. It was a fun day.
Here is a picture of Grandma and E baking cookies. E came and spent the night with us and she and Grandma had a great time baking cookies. That experience got us more ready for Christmas.
A typical conversation starter this time of year is “Are you ready for Christmas?” Most of the time, I think “being ready” refers to activities such as buying and wrapping presents, getting and decorating the Christmas tree, decorating the house, planning for family time and meals, and attending Christmas programs at school or church. Some people might say that the activities I’ve mentioned are distractions from celebrating the birth of Christ. I see all of them as a celebration of life in my relationships with God, family and community.
We chose and cut our Christmas tree from a neighbor’s farm near our mountain house. The Christmas tree ornaments in many ways depict the journey of our family for the past 47 years. Each ornament has meaning and memories of connections with people and events in our life. Other decorations around our house have similar meaning.
We plan to have our family Christmas celebration during the afternoon and evening of Christmas day this year. We will have our daughters and their families and my Mom at our house for a Christmas meal, exchanging presents, and sharing our time and memories with each other.
One thing L and I do each year is to share a token of our appreciation to a few of our family, friends, and neighbors by preparing and giving a sample of chocolate covered peanuts to them. We are fortunate to have access to peanuts grown by L’s brothers on the family farm and neighboring farms. Typically, we will get peanuts after they are harvested, and I will shell them (often while watching ball games). Then L (or L and I) will parch, skin, and put the peanuts into melted chocolate and spoon them into small clusters. Among our friends and families, chocolate covered peanuts seem to be greatly enjoyed even in limited quantities. L and I like being able to share this holiday treat with others.
This time of year also is one of the times we consider the needs in the larger community, and decide which organizations we can support with our small donations.
I wish all of you a Merry Christmas and a happy holiday season.
It seemed timely to give an update on Mom. This picture was taken on Thanksgiving when L and I joined her for lunch at Sunrise. Mom has fallen a couple of times in the last two months, but was not injured except for a bruise and a lump on the back of her head. The second fall resulted in a check-out by the EMS, but they agreed with me that she did not need to go to the hospital. You can see in the picture that she now has a pendant call button that she can press to call the Care Manager.
For the past few weeks mom has seemed to be about normal for her. When I’ve called or visited, she has seemed mostly ok. Sometimes she complains about being lazy or not having much energy. Occasionally, she has a headache. Other times she seems rather perky. We recently went with a group from Sunrise to Captain Stanley’s for seafood, and she enjoyed that.
Snow was predicted to begin after midnight. By 7:00 AM snow was covering the deck. We had watched it fall for an hour or so. The coffee was especially good.
We had close to 2 inches by the time it stopped snowing about 2:30. It was fun to watch it fall and to see the trees covered and snow on the distant hills. We hope to see more snow this winter when we are here.
Getting these 5 girls together for a picture seemed doubtful until one of the parents came to the rescue. In this generation of the Howell family, there are these 5 girls and one boy who is older and did not want his picture taken. L had three younger brothers. She has all daughters (2) and her brothers had all boys (5). L has one grandson and two granddaughters. So far, three of her nephews each have one daughter.
In the big picture of gender equity, these numbers have no significance, but in the context of our family, this generation of 5 girls and 1 boy is a shift from the past two generations.
It was fun to have the family at our house on Friday after Thanksgiving. This has been a 20-year tradition now for all the family to gather at the home of L and K on the Friday after Thanksgiving. While the food has always been important, it is being together that makes it such a great tradition. We have enjoyed these gatherings and are thankful for them. This year was no exception, and we are already looking forward to 2010.
Note: more Thanksgiving pictures are available on the Current Photos page at http://Jonquilpatch.com