Christmas Day has come and gone

Well, it is all finished. All of the hard work of cooking, baking and stress of prepping for dinner guests and making sure everything is perfect. A big "WHEEEEWWWWWW". I hope every one's was a nice as mine. I was able to go and pick up my grandmother to share Christmas dinner with me so I was very pleased. Just to watch how she was enjoying her stay was enough for me.
My grandmother suffered a very big stroke and a heart attack almost two years ago. It came as a shock to our family. Grandma had always been so healthy, but she was elderly, so the possibilities for something like that to happen were always in the back of our minds. It was on Easter when she suffered this and almost two years later she has recovered probably about as much as she is able. Grandma uses a walker, but can very well understand what you are saying and you can tell that she understands. On the downside of the stroke and heart attack.. There was tremendous brain damage so it really is a miracle that she can still do the things that she can. Speaking is one of the things that are now impaired. She really gets frustrated when she knows what she wants to say, but the words just won't come out right. It is very difficult because we were so close and she was a confidant to me. Nevertheless, my father is in the southern states and probably won't be back until late spring. He left this November, before Thanksgiving. I know what you are thinking....."How in the world can and could he leave his mother"? Especially, not knowing when or how long she has left to live..This also bothered my sister and I . That is another reason why I decided to go and get grandma and she was going to be with her family on the holidays.

A friend of mine,my son and I all packed in the car and went to get grandma on Christmas Eve Day. [ Of course I had made prior arrangements so there wouldn't be any complications with her being able to spend Christmas with her grand daughters and great-grandchildren. ] We went to my sister's house and it was a pleasant and very nice evening. My brother and his daughter had come up from the Kettering area and our mother was there, who recently moved back to town, my sister's children and her husband and me and my son. It was so nice that all of us were there together to be with our grandmother. I really think that it meant just as much to her as us. Later in the evening, our father, the one in Florida, called. We thought he would. He spoke with all of us including grandma. We really weren't sure why he called. We don't think he ever should have left, but that is another story. We ended the evening with watching "Its A Wonderful Life" One of my favorite all time movies at Christmas time. We said our goodbyes and packed up the car. Got grandma in to the car and headed to my house for settling in to rise on Christmas Day and then I was to take her back to the nursing home later that night.

Christmas Eve I really had some trouble sleeping. I was up until about four am maybe just the anxiety or worrying that grandma was going to need something or just merely just excited. I am not sure. My son rose first, I got up and made some coffee and Pixies and Pavlos [our two chihuahuas] were I think just as excited. Into the family room I went and the opening of the presents began. Isn't it funny, how long it takes to wrap everything just perfect and then all that work that you spend wrapping is destroyed in a short amount of time? Taking the photographs are my favorite part. Capturing a genuine surprised face and big smile is the best photograph and . the element of suprise, not knowing for sure you are going to get what you want. Especially, for my son. He usually however, does get what he wants and it is hard for me to keep it under wraps, but I still must do pretty good because his facial expressions do reveal that he is really surprised. Dinner was promptly at five o'clock. Everything was perfect and cooked together. It was truly an enjoyable Christmas dinner. We later sat down and I listened to her try to explain to me certain things that she wanted and things that she didn't quite understand. It is hard to do this when my father is the one that should be doing these things, but yet when ever he is around he doesn't take the time to actually sit down with grandma. It is almost as if he took the money and ran and wants to forget about his own mother. I despise that and resent him for that. He has broken my sister and my heart for the last time and no matter what he does and doesn't do. He will be the one that eventually has to deal with "what comes around, goes around". I just hope that he wants to change before it is too late.

I took her back with my son to the nursing home around nine o'clock Christmas night. I have troubles with goodbyes, I always have. She is kind far away for daily visits so that makes it even worse. Tears were shed, hugs that didn't want to let go, and promises of visits were said to her. My son and I were very quiet on the way home. Quietly driving home, in the background classical Christmas music playing and there was a silence, not like an angry silence, but a silence of thought and sadness. We both are very close to grandma and dropping her off to the nursing home was just as heart breaking for him as it is for me. The rest of the evening, once we arrived home, was kind of a quiet one. We watched some television and spoke of the day. How much fun we had and made plans for the tradition of getting grandma from here on out to be with us on the Christmas Holiday. It lightened both of our hearts, I hugged my son very tight and told him how much I loved him. I was so proud of him for being the little gentleman that he was and what a special Christmas Day that this would be to remember.

jd anderson