It's sleeting!

Outside, looking out over our back deck, we can see the sleet bouncing off the railings of the deck.  Opening the sliding glass door for just a few seconds, we can hear the crunchy sound of the sleet hitting the ground.  Looks like a good day to just stay inside and unpack boxes!

Meeting at Chandler

Today we met with the people at Chandler Health Center where Mom has been staying since December 10th.  Linda, Kathy, Guillermo and I listened as 3 different employees - one a medicare nurse, one the physical therapist and the other Mom's case manager gave us an update on how Mom is doing and what the plans are next.  It was agreed that Mom would be discharged from Chandler on Saturday, Jan. 5th unless Blue Cross approved a longer stay.  So, it looks like Mom will finally be going home this coming weekend!

Mom has said several times the last few days that she really wants to go home and when we met up with her after the meeting (she was sitting on the couch in the common living room), she expectantly looked up and asked, "what did they say?"  So, we told her that she's going home on Saturday and she seemed so happy about that!

After the meeting, Linda went back to work, Kathy and Jacob went to North Star Mall, and Guillermo and I had lunch there at Chandler with Mom before heading back home.

So, back at home, we finally took the Christmas tree out of its stand and carried the tree out front - dropping tons of needles all the way out.  It's now leaning against the fence and the side of the house out front and we will take it to be recycled this coming weekend.  There is a BIG empty spot in the corner of our living room where the tree used to be.  Oh well, the only signs of Christmas left in the house now are all the poinsettia plants around the house.  They still look very pretty.

This year, we had the prettiest Christmas tree we believe we have ever had.  ('Course we think that every year).  But THIS year, really, it was a beautiful tree.  We bought it like one week before Christmas.  When we went out to buy a tree, we stopped first at one of those private "striped tents" that sell trees and scoffed at their prices.  Crazy what they charge for a tree, but we had to check them out anyway.  Then we went to the nearby Home Depot and were SHOCKED to find out that they had sold out of all their trees just the day before.

So, we were getting worried.  We then drove to Lowe's to find they did have trees, but they were smaller than we wanted.  We almost went ahead and bought one of those little trees, but decided to check another nearby Home Depot before actually buying.  At that second Home Depot, they had a little outside uncovered tree lot FULL of trees, but only ONE of the kind of tree we wanted (a Noble Fir).  And that one Noble Fir, although a good size and shape, was already a little brown around the edges.  They suggested that we check inside to ask if yet another Home Depot had more trees for sale.  So we went in and after making the phone call, the lady told us that the Home Depot on DeZavala had just gotten in a new shipment and they had several Noble Firs.  We were so hopeful.  We drove all the way over there and were relieved to see that Home Depot kept their Christmas trees inside a tent.  So we went in the tent, the guy took out one Noble Fir and without further ado, we said we'd take that very tree he was holding.  Soooo different from how we usually buy a Christmas tree.  We usually stand up almost every single tree in the lot, twirl it around, put it back and look at another one, and on and on.  This tree, the minute we saw it, we knew it was a beauty and that we wanted it.  The price was right also so we were so happy to have found such a nice tree at such a late date.

ANYway, this beautiful tree has only been up a little over a week and we are already taking it down.  It's crazy, one of the prettiest trees we have ever had and we are keeping it up the shortest time of any tree we have ever had.  But we need to unpack all the boxes that are sitting around the house and it just seemed like it'd be better to get all the Christmas stuff out of the way before taking out the rest of our stuff.  So, today we took the ornaments off the tree and all that's left on it are the lights.  Tomorrow we will take it outside.

This Christmas was nice because for the first time ever, we had an actual fireplace where we could hang the Christmas stockings like they should be hung.  We loved using that fireplace over Christmas.  Here are two pictures of that fireplace - one with flash and one without.

And a picture of all of us taken shortly after Christmas

Today we are feeling quite the sadness because the last of our holiday guests has just left. We took Rebeca to the airport on Friday evening and we took Fernando and Eva to the airport early this morning. We have got to say that this was a most wonderful Christmas - we enjoyed having everyone together for Fernando and Eva's wedding party and then seeing everyone together with Oma on Christmas Eve and then having everyone over to exchange presents on Christmas Eve evening. Everything was so nice - from the parties to our Christmas tree to our new house - even the weather cooperated some and it was a little cold. The only thing that could have been better is if Mom would have been able to go to the wedding party and to our house on Christmas Eve. But at least Mom is doing better and she looks like she is doing well enough to be able to go home again! Anyway, time to start putting all the Christmas decorations away and take the tree down, which is drying out fast! This is always the sad and lonely part so may as well get it done and over with!

Today is Christmas Eve!

Photos from Christmas Eve!

It seemed easiest to just share the album through Picasa - so here it is!

December 25, 2012

Fernando and Eva's Party

Family coming in