In reference to my last post...I'm trying.
Anyway, this past saturday, Jamie and I hosted the Rutan/Buckley Christmas.
It went really well,
which I didn't really expect in all honesty.
Last year I cried after they left.
seriously.
But, this year things went much better.
(and the big glass of wine I had right before everyone got there may have helped. Just saying.)
We had 5 more people this year than last.
It was crazy.
I made the ham, homemade mashed potatoes, fresh green beans, little smokies appetizers, and christmas punch.
It all tasted great, I was really proud of myself.
We had 15 people, and this is what we had to do to our great room to fit them all in for dinner.
Shawn and Tami told everyone to wear red so we could take a family picture. This is how Shawn and Jamie dressed (completely coincidentally). You can tell they are brothers.
Richie brought his 14 week old puppy, who was the same size as my fully grown Minnie.
The puppy also pooped behind our Christmas tree.
Fully potty trained, my butt.
semi-decent family picture.
Shawn and Tami got all of the men matching hat's and scarves, and the women matching scarves and gloves. The pictures turned out pretty cute.
Jamie and i in front of our tree. Love him.
I guess I should finally just blog about this.
My grandpa Blankenship has been in the hospital for almost 2 weeks.
It's just been a lot to process, I haven't felt like writing about it.
Long story short, his blood thinner made his blood too thin, which caused bleeding on his brain, which made him disoriented and confused.
They took him off the blood thinner, and drilled 4 holes in his head to drain the blood.
He was on the mend, and then because he was no longer on the blood thinner, his blood got too thick, and he had a stroke.
The stroke affected his speech. He recognizes everyone, and can smile, but his brain is not telling his mouth what to say. It could be months before it comes back, it could be never.
This has been a nightmare for my family.
The last major sickness in the family was my dad, and he died 3 minutes later.
I know this is on all of their minds, all the time.
It's on mine. My grandpa is the closest link I have to my dad.
My grandma and uncles have essentially been taking turns living at the hospital. One of them stays all night with him every single night.
My grandma is exhausted. They have been married 58 years. This is an unbelievable strain on her.
She is very stressed about Christmas. Christmas and family gatherings are of utmost importance to her, and she is determined to still have Christmas. So, to help her out, I went over last night, and we held up our annual tradition of making Christmas mice.
I spent my entire evening over there yesterday, and we worked on them.
Or really, I worked on them while she dozed on the couch, but it was all the same to me, she's exhausted.
They are my favorite Christmas treat to make, and they taste amazing.
If you're interested, you just melt almond bark in a double broiler, dip a stemmed cherry in it, then lay it on it's side on wax paper. Stick a chocolate kiss to the front, get sliced almonds for ears, and then use red gel icing for eyes.
She is taking some of the mice to my grandpa today.
Hope he likes them, they were always his favorite too.
I'm going to go spend the morning with him tomorrow.
What a way to spend Christmas, huh?
In a hospital bed, unable to speak.
♥
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