Christmas Greetings

I feel like I’m broadcasting the royal Christmas message except that there is no house staff here (pity) to have fed, cleaned, chauffeured and entertained the royal family. I’m taking a union break here to update you.

The Christmas Eve family celebration was a good tradition to create and will be repeated. We had our turkey supper at about 7 p.m. with all of us and partners totaling 10 and requiring the patio table be set up as well since our numbers have expanded. By the time we’d polished off the chocolate truffle cheesecake none of us had room for the chocolate fountain so that will have to wait for another holiday. After Mrs. Claus excused herself from dish duty to stuff the stockings we settled in for the unwrapping and it was great that we all got to spend the evening together rather than being torn by other familial obligations. We all received (and were pleased) with a great selection of beautiful and practical gifts – not a dud amongst the collection.

This morning we were able to sleep in then have a holiday breakfast before some of us headed out. The two youngest daughters and I headed into the nursing home to visit Mom where she was comfortable in the restraint chair but groggy from the pain meds. She managed to enjoy the maple cream candy that the youngest daughter brought for her from the Fredericton farm market. This was always a treat from her childhood, which she looked forward to. The Dr. visited yesterday and we had a conversation about her options as she has an older healed fracture and a new one from the 23rd, which is in fairly good alignment. As he said “I can find an orthopedic surgeon who will attempt to stabilize that hip but she won’t make it through the surgery” I am so pleased that we have sensible family doctors who know that sometimes doing the correct thing is the more conservative approach. And as he discussed her quality of life is limited, she spends a good deal of time in the chair as it is so whether she walks again or not will likely not be the issue it might be for someone else. So she is taking Tylenol with codeine, which allows her to sleep and pivoting on the good leg with non-weight bearing on the affected one as the pain causes her to cooperate thus far. The Manor staff is great – we are so lucky.

Today has been very mild at 12 c so certainly not a white Christmas but great for traveling. And since the girls and their partners are heading back to the city tomorrow it’s good there isn’t much of the white stuff.