Happy Holidays to Everyone,

I hope all is good for all of you. We are doing fine here. We have been rocking and rolling with Mom and Dad. Today, all is good. Since Mom has come home from the hospital, she has her good days and her bad days. Sometimes she is having some stomach bloating and some diarrhea. One issue is that her GI tube sometimes pops open. The nursing staff at the hospital she was at, lost the closure to the G-Tube and sometimes the clamp pops open. We has put a hair barrette on it to keep it closed. That seems to help the inadvertant air intake. Other times, it is just stuff she eats, gives her gas.

On the 10th of Dec, one of our nurses, Sara, broke her ankle. She was not working for us at the time and was walking in high heels and she fell. She ended up breaking her ankle. She was off and started working nights with Scarlet. On this past friday, she called Anna, and said she didn't feel well at all, and wasn't sure if she was going to make it in to work on Sat. (the 18th). Denise has something in her mouth, that her daughter caught from her, and she couldn't come in either. So our wonderful, Anna, stepped up to the plate, or bed I should say, and did the nursing care for both Sat and Sun. She did a great job. I was told by Liz on Friday afternoon, that we needed dinners for Dad. He didn't like the ones that were left. So I went and did all the household shopping and got stuff to make the dinners.

Our dog, Lucky was yelping when you touched him, so I had to take him to the vet too on Sat. So on Sunday, I spent cooking for M&D and then I delivered the food and did dinner duty with Anna until the Nancy got there for the night shift. Dad was being a little fussy for Anna and didn't want to sit at the table for dinner, so I kept him company and helped him eat while he sat on the couch.

Joan is coming here on Wed for the holidays, and Tom, Mary, Andy and Matt are arriving on Friday. So the whole family will be together. That is so great! We haven't had the whole family there since 1997 for christmas (as far as I can remember). We have gotten the entire family together since then, but not at the holidays. I have the cookies baked and the house decorated. But there is still some stuff to do. I still have a few gifts left to buy and cleaning to do, shopping for food etc.

We aren't too sure if Sara will be ok to work next weekend, but with all of us here, we will get it done, it will be a great family bonding experience for all of us. Tom can do Dad and us girls do Mom and cook the holiday dinner. What a fun holiday we have planned. Actually, it really will be wonderful. All of us together!

I hope everyone has a great holiday!

Love and hugs from the gang in TX.
Mary