Because the past month is such a blur, I know I missed participating in a “Christmas meme” that I first noticed over at Des Moines Girl’s blog, Des Moines 360. Hoping you’ll indulge me the opportunity, though late, to play along! 

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping paper. Extra-special glittery/foily paper for Santa, please.
2. Tree – Real or Artificial? Artificial. I love the scent of real trees, but it seems like a huge waste.
3. When do you put the Christmas tree up? Normally, second week of December. This year, not til the 18th.
4. When do you take the tree down? Weekend after Christmas. One year, March.
5. Like Egg Nog? Ug, no. But if you’re going to spike it with Southern Comfort or Rum, please share a shot of that.
6. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes – a lovely one!
7. Favorite gift received as a child? I remember very few specific childhood Christmas gifts, I’m not sure I could name one as my favorite. A few I remember: Dancerina, a ballet-dancing doll at age 8; a beautiful real-gold ring with a diamond and the letters LOVE that I got from Dad, around age 10; two teddy bears I got from my Mom in years when we were really broke, ages 13 and 14.
8. Hardest person to buy for? My dad – the guy’s literally got everything.
9. Easiest person to buy for? My daughter.
10. Worst Christmas gift? I’ve never received a “bad” gift. Though some gifts may not have been to my personal taste, they were still given with love and forethought. I will say that the wall-mounted singing deer-head (“Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer”) will probably never make it out of the basement until it’s time to head to the Goodwill.
11. Mail or email a Christmas Card? Mail. I actually like hand-writing the addresses and signing cards with a short happy greeting.
12. Favorite Christmas movie? We watch “A Christmas Story” and “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” every year. This year, I especially enjoyed “A Christmas Story.”
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Normally, around the first of December. This year, not til the 18th.
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? You mean re-gifted? Yes.
15. Favorite food to eat on Christmas? Besides our official Green Family Turkey, I love to make and eat those cookies with peanut butter inside two Town House crackers, dipped in melted chocolate.
16. Clear or colored tree lights? Colored.
17. Favorite Christmas Song? O Holy Night and the entire “For Christmas This Year” album by The Lettermen.
18. Travel during Christmas or stay home? Stay home, thank goodness.
19. Can you name Santa’s reindeer? Dasher and Dancer and Donner and Blitzen; Prancer; Rudolph; Grumpy; Dopey, Nixon.
20. Angel or Star on tree top? As ostentatious a star as possible, preferably with lights all over it and tinsel all around it.
21. Open presents on Christmas Eve or morning? Christmas morning. Although, we almost buckled this year.
22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? Do not get me started. But here’s a hint: a clerk at Game Stop actually wished me a “Merry ChrismaKwanzaKuh.”

To whoever found my phone, probably in the Dahl’s or Walgreen’s parking lot on East Euclid on Christmas Eve, I’m sorry you didn’t have the character to turn it in to the store’s lost-and-found or even answer it when I was frantically calling its number to try to locate it. I hope you enjoy the wallpaper picture of my friend’s dog wearing his motorcycle goggles, at least until the battery goes dead.

A week before Christmas I learned that my cellular phone contract was up and it was time to pick a new phone through Verizon’s “new every two” program. Instead of just walking out with whatever phone would be free-after-rebate like I usually do, though, I decided to splurge on a green LG EnV because it has a 2 megapixel camera. (I’d been wanting an easy-to-carry, lower-priced digital camera to snap photos for blog posts, and this seemed like a good solution: get two tools for the price of one!)

I carried the phone around for a week… and on Christmas Eve I discovered I had lost it! I was… I am… heartbroken – I really, REALLY loved that phone! It had a flip-up cover that revealed a larger display screen and full QWERTY keyboard for flying through text messages, and the camera was excellent. And with our new family plan with its unlimited text, picture, and email messages, I could snap a photo no matter where I was and then email it to myself right away so I wouldn’t lose track of it before writing the blog post.  It was truly going to be the perfect piece of technology for me. And now it’s gone.

And to make things even better, they had added the price of it to my bill, so I haven’t even paid for it yet. How much fun do you suppose that will be, writing a check to pay for something I lost within a week? Yeah.

I am finally breathing a sigh of relief. My dad’s immediate health issues have been resolved and he is doing much better at home while we look for an assisted living arrangement that meets his long-term needs.

And, while I missed the build-up to Christmas entirely this year due to work and personal chaos, I finally got to breathe from December 21-26. On Friday night my daughter and I headed out to shop for Steve’s gifts – it was nice to have some time with her. I learned about a few things going on in her life that she had not shared with me yet, and I was surprised at a particularly serious issue she’s dealing with in her circle of friends. I offered my support and told her I was thankful she felt she could talk to me – she said she was actually relieved to finally share it, as much of it has been bothering her for quite some time.

On Saturday we went to see Steve’s folks and family over at his oldest sister’s house, then on the 23rd we grocery-shopped for our Christmas Day luncheon – we normally roast a turkey, but had considered just doing cold sandwiches as a way of simplifying things since the past month had been so busy/stressful. In the end, I assured everyone that preparing the lunch was one of my favorite aspects of Christmas Day so we went ahead and bought a small turkey and fixin’s for our favorite side dishes. (“It’s not the turkey that’s a lot of work, it’s getting all the side dishes to be done at the same time!”) That evening, Steve’s grown daughter came over with her family and we had our gift-exchange with them, as well as an absolutely wonderful supper of cheese-potato soup and toasted Italian bread.

My daughter and I spent Christmas Eve Day baking pumpkin pies and Christmas cut-out cookies and making ahead the stuffing for our turkey. On the 25th, I got the turkey into the oven around 9:30; we opened gifts, then prepped all the side dishes for lunch. My dad arrived around 11:30 and visited while I finished preparing lunch, then we all sat down to a perfect bird with stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole and crescent rolls, then pumpkin pie for dessert. Dad left around 2:30, we all took naps, and then around 6 we headed out to see Steve’s folks again before they returned home to Missouri. They were staying with his youngest sister, whose family had just moved into a lovely new home, so we got the grand tour and visited there for a couple of hours.

I had yesterday off from work, too, which was spent doing laundry and helping Dad with a doctor visit and some errands, then a nice supper at home and finally dropping DD off for a sleep-over. Today I was back at work, feeling a lot less stressed and thankful that the holiday itself was about as perfect as it could be.

I hope to also be back to a more lively schedule of blogging as of this week – I have lots of fun bits and side-stories to share, and am looking forward to catching up with all of you through my RSS feeds.

This past week was a difficult one. My brother returned to Wisconsin last Monday, after having come down for a few days to help with Dad’s health issues. On Wednesday, Dad was moved from the hospital to a care center/nursing home for physical therapy and rehab. He was doing well there, and yesterday I moved him back home just in time to be snowed/iced in.

On the day of his move-in at the care center, I felt awful for him – I know how he feels about nursing homes, and I wanted him to understand that his stay was necessary, but temporary. I know I was not the only one reinforcing that message to him in the days leading up to the move. I drove him there myself – there was no need for an ambulance or the expense of a transport service. He is staying in the same facility where my grandmother went for rehab after a fall and, eventually, to live permanently. It is literally six blocks from my house, which makes it really convenient for visits and errands.

We had not been in the facility since the last time we all visited Grandma right before she passed away, about four years ago. As we walked in, I noticed immediately that the hallways were over-crowded with people in wheelchairs. Some of them were “parked,” while others were wheeling themselves (with varying degrees of success) down the hallway. I felt my spirits sinking lower and lower – my dad does not belong here, I kept thinking. He walks unassisted, his mind is sharp, he does not need to be here. In short, I had to keep reminding myself that this is temporary – that he’s here for rehab, not to live, and that he will be going home – hopefully before Christmas.

What I also noticed was that the environment did not seem to be bothering my dad at all. He was cheerful, greeted everyone (staff and residents) in a pleasant and matter-of-fact sort of way, just like he would greet someone who was NOT in such a depressing situation, and even ran into someone he knew – an old friend who was visiting a resident family member. (I swear I can’t take him ANYWHERE that he doesn’t know someone – not even the nursing home!) Point being, even though our roles are beginning to reverse (child becoming caregiver), he still manages to teach me something now and then. I know he’s glad to be home, and I am continuing to work on finding him an assisted living arrangement.