Christmas Day

 

Oh My, I love finding older folders on my computer and remembering the fun I had in creating the pictures. This picture is really old, and I used this photo program to give it a fun look. This picture was taken right before Adrien's surgery. 

 Hi,

 I hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas, and that Santa didn't leave anyone any lumps of coal in their Christmas Stockings!

 Jonathan and I had a quiet day, and it was really nice. Karyn and her family stopped over for about a half hour after having Christmas with his mom because it was his son's week to spend the week to have Caleb and after he had his Christmas with his mom, then grandmother and his aunt and uncle, it was time for them to go home so they could have their own Christmas.

 I was surprised to have been able to see them at all, so it was a nice surprise.

 Jonathan had cleaned the kitchen and then he prepared our Christmas dinner. We had ham steaks with pineapple, stuffing, baked beans, collard/turnip greens and a style of creamed corn. It was a different kind. He even baked some rolls. 

 We had a German Chocolate cake, but we were so full and had no room for it. I ended up cutting a slice of it today. We have learned to just buy the small personal sizes of baked goods from the bakery because an entire cake or pie would just go to waste with us. We like the brownie bites, and he will get them, and we may have one or two if we want something sweet and that is usually enough to curb our sweet tooth. 

 We even shared our meal with Karyn to take home so they would have their dinner and not have to cook once they got home. They live an hour away, so after the long day and the trip home, I am sure that cooking dinner was not something that they wanted to do so sharing our food was fine. 

 I finished the last piece of ham and the last of the stuffing yesterday. Jon and I didn't think that those ham steaks would have fed 5 people and still had ham left for a couple more meals. 

 I talked or text all of my kids. Matt and I text, and Nathan had to work so we text, then I talked to Laurie.

 They had their Christmas at midnight. That is the tradition that they want for their family and the kids wanted to do it as well. It gave them a chance to stay up and to play with their new gifts, so I am happy that is something that they would like to do as they go forward.

 We had Christmases when my kids were growing up to open our gifts at midnight. It was really better for us as a family because then the kids could have time to enjoy their gifts. We were always expected to go to his mom's house Christmas. That was for me to help cook and clean! 

 But once the kids opened their gifts, they were busy enjoying their presents and I usually put on a DVD that we had bought and laid on the couch where I usually fell asleep. One year I remember waking up on the couch and Laurie was asleep in the chair, Karyn on another sofa across the room, and the boys had a blanket and a pillow asleep in the floor and Jonathan is the only kid that had sense enough to go to bed lol.

 Somehow, we all got enough sleep to get up and get through Christmas Day at my husband's parents' house. It was usually a hard day for me at least. The amount of clean up was insane. Of course, my sister-in-law helped me, or I would still be there cleaning. And of course, his mother always had something that just had to be done and couldn't wait and no matter how tired I was I was expected to do it. After the kitchen was put to rights, I always had to bleach the counters and stove and wipe down the refrigerator and then sweep and mop. It was all just so exhausting. There was a lot of resentment as well. My sister-in-law was always upset that her husband and kids couldn't really have a Christmas Day for their kids to be able to enjoy their gifts. They had to leave them at home and then make the trip to her parents' house. They lived about 11/2 hours away and so I understood. They always held or attended a party or church service Christmas Eve so; they were tired too.

 For me, I resented the fact that I never could have Christmas with my family. I had to do it Christmas Eve by hosting my family. One year we did go to my mom's, but I didn't get to visit my sisters or the kids because they had already left to go home, and it was after rushing thru Christmas at my in-laws. I told everyone that I was going to leave to go be with my family and I got out of there as fast as I could, but disappointed that I had missed my 3 sisters and their families. So, I ended up hosting on Christmas Eve and continued because it was easier than rocking the boat and making everyone mad. 

 So, I haven't spoke of this in my last blog post, but I had a bad experience a few days before Christmas. 

 I couldn't catch my breath and then I couldn't breathe at all. Karyn was here and she was napping, and I went to the bathroom and suddenly I couldn't breathe at all. I remember I walked out of the bathroom and told Karyn to call 911.

 She knew I didn't ask if it wasn't an emergency. Once the EMT's arrived they put me into the ambulance, and they had to do CPR all the way to the hospital and the trauma team met us and intubated me on the way in. I don't remember any of this. 

 I had a UTI, and my doctor prescribed an antibiotic for me, with my suggestion, telling her that it worked better than the one I had been on. I had 3 UTI's back-to-back, for the last 3 months and we needed to knock it out. She researched a proper dosage and as it turned out, I should have never had the antibiotic due to only having one kidney. It caused a critical injury to my kidney, and it caused my potassium to become very high. The potassium caused my cardiac issues. I have to see a pulmonary doctor, Jan 16th. It has caused some problems and it seems like all my blog posts are somehow about my health. 

 Besides that, it was the Christmas season, and I didn't want to have a depressing blog post.

 I don't remember the date that this happened, but I was released on the 22nd, just a few days before Christmas. Karyn and Laurie and I had already decided to have our Christmas New Year's Day so at least I was home for Christmas. Praise the Lord that I survived. 

 I don't know how Miss Edna is doing. She doesn't return my phone calls, or text messages. She said that talking on the phone causes her breathing issues to be worse, but she would return my texts, but I haven't heard from her since the last update I gave. I am worried about her, but I hope that she is doing alright. I would think that Deann or Audrey would call me if she was in the hospital. 

 It is after midnight, and I am really tired. I had a long day and I had not slept well the night before, so I wanted to go to bed and to sleep early tonight. I was in bed before 9:00 but after tossing and turning, I got up and decided to finish my blog post, but I think that I can rest now, so I am going to bed.

 Stay Safe and Stay Well and I will talk to you later on. BB