The Holiday Update

Well, our holiday season was great! My brother and his family came up and stayed with me for a week.

Two toddlers + two young boys = chaos

But good chaos. I was surprised at how well the kids all got along. My aunt, uncle, grandparents and two cousins came up as well, although they stayed with Ginger. We had much laughter, lots of good food, lots of movies and tons of hugs. I miss my family something awful. It is always sad to see them leave.

Then just as they left, Bob's friend, Eric, rolled into town. He is a long, long, long time friend of both Bob and I and he has been here for a few days so far. He is a fellow engineer and is enjoying helping Bob with some of his little projects while he is visiting. He leaves town on Tuesday with Bob to head to San Diego (he drove and needs assistance) and Bob will fly back next Wednesday. That will be a long day.

New Year's Eve was promising to be a fun one and we were going to troll around downtown Bend with some of my work associates, but then Bob got the call he didn't want to get for a while. His father was in the process of passing away and he needed to be by his side. Bob, Debbie K and Patti all held vigil and held their father's hand and told him how much they loved him and appreciated him as a father until he passed away. His body was old and tired and his mind had fogged from Alzheimers, so this was very much a blessing since he can now be with his wife, Marian. Bob is silently grieving his loss. Losing a parent is always harder than you think it will be.

Then today, I was redeeming a gift certificate that Bob had given me a year ago for a facial while he watched the kids. On my way home he called to tell me that Alexis was trying some acrobatic trick on the new trampoline she shouldn't have been trying and she took a hard fall. The fall left her in tears for a long time and during the two hours at urgent care, she cried constantly. Her poor eyes are puffy and chapped from so many tears. It looks like she broke her arm, hopefully just a hairline fracture with some fluid that is probably causing all the pain. Her arm is all splinted up and they gave us some Tylenol with codeine to calm her if she needs it.

So far, the end of December was great but the beginning of 2009 leaves a little something to be desired. I am going to bed tonight with lots of good thoughts to throw out into the universe that tomorrow will be a better day and 2009 a good year.

As for all the hectic goings on of the holidays, I will post that with pictures when I get a minute to go through everything. There were some great moments that I must share with you all.