Archive for December 18th, 2007

I didn’t hear him come up behind me -
“What are you doing, Hon?”

“Praying.”

“For what?”

“Praying that you will have the best Christmas you have ever had.”

“I’d just like to be normal again.”

“You will be, Hon.”

For the 4th time in 42 years, I saw him collapse in tears. I knelt by his chair and rocked him. We held each other – heaving and sobbing.

He comforted me. “It’s Ok, Hon, it’s Ok.”

So Chef sent us money to go enjoy a meal on him. Dad was so excited. That is one thing he still likes to do (usually!).

Anyway, tonight we are sitting by the fire and I asked where he’d like to go best. We settled on a nice, cozy spot with a big stone fireplace and club chairs. If all goes well, I’m asking the server to take our pic!

Hope everyone had a good day – we did! Shoveled lots of snow, though. I am cooking turkey necks (yuck!) right now in the crock pot so I have lots of golden, rich broth for my gravy on the Big day.

Today my sister commented she liked that I always make lots of gravy. Coming right up, Shirl!
I made my turkey dressing and froze it today, also. I can smell the feast already.

I always make Greek flavored rice as an extra side dish – people hesitate and then dig in! Who’s coming for dinner? You are all welcome.

“Do you think it would be OK to cook the yams 3 days ahead?”

I could see his smile forming. “You can’t kill yams.”

Can you imagine the confusion of the remote control? Finally I had to “hide it”. After so many sessions of total disruption, I had to do this.

Luckily, I have someone who would “deprogram” the mess and get me able to use it again.

My solution is to carry it around with my cell and phone – blends right in! I put an old one out for him to use. He calls me when “his” doesn’t work and I “go get new batteries” and voila!

It’s deceptive but necessary as was too difficult to have all the buttons hit til their little computer minds were whirling – mine, too.

Soon as Christmas guests have left, I’m going looking for a marker which can be erased. It’s just painful to watch him try to find the right lights switch, cabinet door, room door, etc.

I had two large fridges in the kitchen (yes, we needed two!) but it was so confusing for him that I had the workers move one downstairs. Oh, how I miss that fridge. The other day my sister and I were talking and I mentioned how I missed having both in the kitchen. She commented that she was surprised when I wanted it down. Explained why. Guess she never knew what a struggle he had dealing with two.

Ah, well, the exercise is good and for Christmas it will be handy for guests.