Christmas 2008
Early morning Saturday December 20 my youngest son K and his fiancée C loaded boxes of my backup medical equipment, medical supplies, a couple boxes of Christmas presents and a small case of clothes. We left and started driving through the city heading toward my son C who lives in Madison. As we drove through Chicago, we noticed all the northbound entrance ramps to the expressway closed by Chicago police. We never found out the reason why the ramps were closed, but we think it might have had something to do with President elect Obama. One of the nice side effects was that we did not have much traffic to deal with on the way north out of the city.
A couple of hours later we pulled in my son’s driveway in time to see him and my four-year old grandson L shoveling the last of the snow from the drive. Once the boxes had been removed from behind my wheelchair I rolled down the ramp, up the front walk, and up the ramp my son C had made into their house. Once everyone had carried all my medical supplies and boxes of Christmas presents into the house my youngest son K and his fiancée C took my son’s car and spent the rest of the day with her mother.
I spent the rest of Saturday and Sunday resting up recuperating from the trip. By Monday I was feeling well enough to watch my grandson L for a couple hours while his parents had to be away from home. We watched a TV show I had taped about logging in a swamp, a show with a lot of large logging equipment, something a 4-year old boy liked. I also spent a couple hours Tuesday afternoon watching the same show while my son and daughter in-law had to work. The plan had been for my wife P to drive up Tuesday morning arriving in time to watch L, however her travel was slowed because she spent the first couple of hours creeping through a snow storm while driving around Chicago.
Each morning I would wake up around 6:00 – 6:30 in order to take my medicine and use my Nebulizer. Each morning as soon as I would sit up, L would pop out of his room to help me. After the Nebulizer was started, he and I would sit on the couch, under the blankets looking at his books. He would read the books to me because I can not talk for long periods of time. So while I turned the pages, he told me all about the stories. He and I changed our routine after Christmas, instead of reading we would sometimes play with his expanded collection of Matchbox cars. It is truly amazing how those cars could race up and down the mountains we made out of the blankets.
The rest of the family started arriving on Christmas Eve. Son J rode up on Christmas Eve with his brother K and C. Daughter K and her fiancé K came up Christmas morning because of spending Christmas Eve with his family. On Christmas Eve I received instructions not to get too excited about opening Christmas stocking early Christmas morning. Everyone wanted a relaxing morning. So I patiently waited until after a breakfast of Monkey bread and scones before opening my Christmas stocking. Shortly after we opened our stocking daughter K and K arrived. When they walked in Mr. K was wearing the Santa outfit he gave me two years ago and which I re-gifted to him last year.
After everyone settled down we opened the rest of our Christmas presents. We also passed around a couple of catalogs from World Vision, CRWRC and Children's Hunger Fund so each person could select a gift for those who don’t have as much as we do. Before we started exchanging presents P started to prepare some things to munch on. She turned on the oven and a short time later the smoke detector went off. The problem was traced to a breakfast sausage that had been left in the oven and was now on fire. Even with opening doors and windows it was still smoky in the house. When you look at some of the photos I have it appears that we are opening presents in a cloud of fog.
During Christmas afternoon some took naps, L had his uncle K assemble some of the gifts he had received. Son K read a book his sister had received. I don’t think he agreed with the author’s viewpoint because he would often stop and tell everyone how his opinions differed from the authors. Those in charge of the Christmas meal were busy in the kitchen and I was busy with my camera. After Christmas dinner, some returned home because of having to work on Friday. The rest of us spend a relaxed evening. Early Friday afternoon everyone else left for home. It was a great Christmas and I have between 250 – 300 photos taken during the 10 days I spend there. Of course most of them are not usable photos for one reason or the other.
Saturday afternoon my daughter in-laws parents and sister arrived. We had a wonderful time Saturday and Sunday visiting with them and I once again I had the camera out taking photos of them playing with L and his presents.
Early Monday morning C and P loaded the van with all my medical equipment and we returned home. After spending the best part of ten days away from home it was good to be back home again.
One thing L and I did was to show each other how both of us could make funny faces. In fact L took my camera and took a couple of photos showing everyone that his Grandpippy still has a bit of the 4-year old in him.
A couple of hours later we pulled in my son’s driveway in time to see him and my four-year old grandson L shoveling the last of the snow from the drive. Once the boxes had been removed from behind my wheelchair I rolled down the ramp, up the front walk, and up the ramp my son C had made into their house. Once everyone had carried all my medical supplies and boxes of Christmas presents into the house my youngest son K and his fiancée C took my son’s car and spent the rest of the day with her mother.
I spent the rest of Saturday and Sunday resting up recuperating from the trip. By Monday I was feeling well enough to watch my grandson L for a couple hours while his parents had to be away from home. We watched a TV show I had taped about logging in a swamp, a show with a lot of large logging equipment, something a 4-year old boy liked. I also spent a couple hours Tuesday afternoon watching the same show while my son and daughter in-law had to work. The plan had been for my wife P to drive up Tuesday morning arriving in time to watch L, however her travel was slowed because she spent the first couple of hours creeping through a snow storm while driving around Chicago.
Each morning I would wake up around 6:00 – 6:30 in order to take my medicine and use my Nebulizer. Each morning as soon as I would sit up, L would pop out of his room to help me. After the Nebulizer was started, he and I would sit on the couch, under the blankets looking at his books. He would read the books to me because I can not talk for long periods of time. So while I turned the pages, he told me all about the stories. He and I changed our routine after Christmas, instead of reading we would sometimes play with his expanded collection of Matchbox cars. It is truly amazing how those cars could race up and down the mountains we made out of the blankets.
The rest of the family started arriving on Christmas Eve. Son J rode up on Christmas Eve with his brother K and C. Daughter K and her fiancé K came up Christmas morning because of spending Christmas Eve with his family. On Christmas Eve I received instructions not to get too excited about opening Christmas stocking early Christmas morning. Everyone wanted a relaxing morning. So I patiently waited until after a breakfast of Monkey bread and scones before opening my Christmas stocking. Shortly after we opened our stocking daughter K and K arrived. When they walked in Mr. K was wearing the Santa outfit he gave me two years ago and which I re-gifted to him last year.
After everyone settled down we opened the rest of our Christmas presents. We also passed around a couple of catalogs from World Vision, CRWRC and Children's Hunger Fund so each person could select a gift for those who don’t have as much as we do. Before we started exchanging presents P started to prepare some things to munch on. She turned on the oven and a short time later the smoke detector went off. The problem was traced to a breakfast sausage that had been left in the oven and was now on fire. Even with opening doors and windows it was still smoky in the house. When you look at some of the photos I have it appears that we are opening presents in a cloud of fog.
During Christmas afternoon some took naps, L had his uncle K assemble some of the gifts he had received. Son K read a book his sister had received. I don’t think he agreed with the author’s viewpoint because he would often stop and tell everyone how his opinions differed from the authors. Those in charge of the Christmas meal were busy in the kitchen and I was busy with my camera. After Christmas dinner, some returned home because of having to work on Friday. The rest of us spend a relaxed evening. Early Friday afternoon everyone else left for home. It was a great Christmas and I have between 250 – 300 photos taken during the 10 days I spend there. Of course most of them are not usable photos for one reason or the other.
Saturday afternoon my daughter in-laws parents and sister arrived. We had a wonderful time Saturday and Sunday visiting with them and I once again I had the camera out taking photos of them playing with L and his presents.
Early Monday morning C and P loaded the van with all my medical equipment and we returned home. After spending the best part of ten days away from home it was good to be back home again.
One thing L and I did was to show each other how both of us could make funny faces. In fact L took my camera and took a couple of photos showing everyone that his Grandpippy still has a bit of the 4-year old in him.
posted by UP at 7:01 AM
1 Comments:
LOL
What a fun Christmas you had!
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