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Today we're going to head in to Newport Beach where we'll stay at a Ramada near the hospital. That will make it a lot easier to arrive at 5:30 AM for surgery tomorrow. Hopefully it will be outpatient and I'll be on the road back home on Thursday. So I'll be off line for a few days.
It was almost a 2-day celebration and now it's the morning after...reflection time. What stands out? Hugs, food, music, laughter! We are so lucky! I took my camera along but got so caught up in just watching the haps that I forgot to take any pix. Maybe Brad and Jimbo will share their photos:)
Jim gave me several movies that have been on my Wish List for a long time, including Shirley Valentine and Il Divo Live at the Greek! Then son Jim gave me the newly released Mamma Mia which includes sing-along versions of all the songs. Boy did Renee and I have fun with that :)
When everyone arrived at Renee and Tom's I passed out the family calendar. Evan was really disappointed that he didn't get one. But then we asked him to be Santa's helper and pass out all the gifts. Every year we try different "rules" for gift opening. One at a time? Free for all? Does anyone pay attention anyway? :)
This year Evan, who is 3, helped Mary get the gifts all passed out and then we let Evan open all his gifts first. He put on quite a show of being overjoyed at each present. Then we let him pick who would open gifts next. He picked his "Grandfather" Jim after much convincing on Jim's part. There are 13 of us and each time Evan spent several seconds, finger on chin, looking around to see who he'd pick next. He's is such a little stinker, making his Mom wait until last. And she had the biggest box of all....a group gift of a KitchenAid mixer.
So that was all great fun and then most of us moved to the game room where the kids had a new Wii. They couldn't get over the grandparents getting into Wii boxing and bowling! Jim especially enjoyed the bowling and is now trying to figure out how we'll fit a Wii into our little house. He's always got some gadget he needs :)
Tom cooked up ribs and a beef roast with homemade rub. Very delicious along with rolls, beans, Christmas jello and a table of desserts. We probably all put on a few pounds unless dancing and singing to Mamma Mia wore off enough calories.
Now I wish I'd been two people. One who could join in all the fun, as I did, and another who could record the moment in movies and pictures. Guess I'll just have to rely on my "great brain" for the memories!
Let it rain, let it rain! We are ready for Christmas! All that's left is to say to all of you...Merry Christmas! I hope that each of you will have a very special day with family and friends.
Last Friday we spent the day shopping in Temecula and got all but one gift purchased. We finished off the afternoon with late lunch at Appleby's. Shrimp again! We had the special 2 for 20 meal...appetizer and 2 entrees for $20. It was a very fulfilling and tasty meal. Yesterday we finished up shopping and...
All my calendar helpers got the job done and we were miraculously able to get the calendar printed and in the mail yesterday to distant family. Tomorrow we'll have fun watching the local family page through the calendar and exclaim over the old pictures and count how many times their own pic was included :)
Today we gather at Jim's in Corona just to be together, eat and maybe play games or sing. Depends on how the spirit moves us. Tomorrow we'll all be at Renee and Tom's for gift exchange, dinner and, if we're brave, Robber Bingo! Rain is in the forecast for both days but boy that is better than snow!.,,,and it won't dampen our fun!
Well somethimes that's true! But for the last several days it has been pouring rain, off and on, here in SoCal with lots of snow in the surrounding mountains. At least that's what they say but the cloud cover is so low we can't see the beauty yet.
It is so overcast that we have the lights and the Christmas tree on and it's still pretty gloomy. The rain is thundering on the rooftop so we have to speak loudly to converse. But tomorrow the forecast is for sunshine for several days. So I won't complain anymore because we realllly need the rain here.
Yesterday I had a fun lunchtime with my friend, Vickie. She brought me a "comfort and care" Christmas gift. What a dear friend. The bag included a book titled You Can Heal Your Life, a funky tea cup that says "celebrate life" all over it, a CD on meditation and a bunch of tasty kinds of tea. All designed to pamper me and keep me in a positive state of mind.
This morning I finished my nine calendar pages and sent them off to my "editor" Bryan who will reveiw them to see if I've duplicated any pictures :) When I make up the calendar I'm looking through 14,000 plus pictures dating from 1959. I select the ones I like and pop them on a page. I try to get a good selection of pix for each family member but I do have favorite pictures. The last few years I have duplicated pix...last year I had the same picture on three months and never even noticed it. The grandkids take one look and let me know about my mistake. So this year Bryan is the official duplicate editor!
Now that's off my plate for a few days so I better get busy thinking about Christmas gifts. We were going to shop today but with rain, hail and wind in the forecast I think we'll just hunker down and watch a movie :)
This is our weather map for December 15, 2008! That white stuff is snow!
The chilly weather does make it Christmasy though. Yesterday Naomi invited me to come bake cookies so we spent the afternoon perusing the Rachel Ray magazine and baking up sweets. First a double batch of peanut butter kisses, you know, the peanut butter cookie with the Hershey kiss poked in the middle. That's the fave of many of us. Next we experimented on a pecan butter cookie wrapped around a caramel. Boy did that turn out good!
Evan helped a little by unwrapping kisses and stirring dough. Hilly and Bryan helped a little too but I think they enjoyed their naps more! I brought home a little plate of goodies that we'll enjoy for a few evenings with our tea.
Today looks like a good day to "cave" as Jim would say. Surf the internet, and oh...work on the calendar pages!
While having our tea we heard horn honking and "what to our wondering eyes should appear" but a line of old cars and geezers with Santa hats on...the Hemet old car parade through the park. They were collecting canned goods for needy families.
This old pickup was my choice. You can check out my Picasa album to see a few more.
The parade was very short. Last year I recall lots of decorated golf carts and bikes. I think this year lacked coordination and publicity. Maybe that's because the park is really not very full. I haven't asked but I'll bet their occupancy is down by 30-40%.
Tonight we'll be joining my business partners for dinner at Morton's Steakhouse. It's our annual Christmas Dinner when the spouses join in the fun. The four couples combined probably have 150 years of married life experience with our original spouses! Jim mentioned this morning that this month is the 50th anniversary of the day we met. Neither one of us could remember the exact date :)
We'll have to be bundled up for dinner because temps are dropping into the 30s tonight. There's a storm front coming that will bring snow down to the 3000 foot level. That should make for a lovely Christmas! We can see the snow but we don't have to contend with it.
BTW...I have a new surgery date...December 30. So New Year's Eve will be a little different than past years!
My surgery has been scheduled for January 9th. That's a month away! When I got that news I "freaked out" once again. Jeez, you'd think I'd be getting used to this. So I emailed my doctor about my stress level and concerns. Would you believe that I got an email response in 2 minutes?!
Don't worry, she says. This will not impact your well being and health. Be patient. Yeah right. OK....so I took some deep breaths, broke out a book and immersed myself in another world.
Did I tell you that I've done some experimenting with the Picasa 3 Collage maker and find it very easy to do. I think the Family Calendar will have a new look this year. I've also enlisted contributions from five family members who will create a page. This should be fun! :) Can't wait to see how they will create a page.
It's getting a bit cooler here in Hemet, down in the upper 30's at night so time to get out the heavier blankets. The little heater runs for about half the day and we stay toasty. I made a great pot of creamy carrot soup last night...we at the whole thing! A pound of carrots!
Our tiny fiberoptic tree is up along with my dancing Santa's and some outdoor lights. We're getting in the Christmas Spirit. Next is to think about gift buying. Maybe I'll just bake cookies for everyone :)
We needed to do a little gift shopping so we headed for Temecula....more and better stores, plus I was craving Coconut Shrimp from Red Lobster (Friend Beth has written so much about shrimp that I had to have some :)
We completed our shopping fairly quickly (won't say what, who, where) and then had a leisurely lunch at the Lobster. Would you believe I had not only Coconut Shrimp but also the Shrimp Trio of scampi, deep fried and shrimp alfredo! Needless to say there are leftovers that I'll be eating in a little bit.
As we drive we often listen to downloads of talk shows and today was Hugh Hewitt. He had an interesting guest speaking on the car industry crisis. Looks like the carmakers will just have to go belly-up like other businesses do. Reorganize, get rid of the dumb management, and move on....or go under. I don't want to bail out the same old management, do you?
Now I'm waiting for the hospital to call and tell me when my surgery is scheduled. Late Friday afternoon? I doubt I'll hear today. I'll either drink some more Tennessee Tea or have a Valium to get me through the weekend :)
In my ongoing health saga there's been a change in plans. I have a new surgeon, referred by my first guy, who focuses on "breast preservation". A second area of concern found on the MRI turns out to be cancer also. The standard solution would be mastectomy. When I heard that I went into a tailspin. Thank God for the referral to Dr. Guerra. We spent two hours with her yesterday and she outlined her plan to do a larger than usual lumpectomy.
So surgery is not tomorrow, may not even be until late December. I'll know in the next couple of days when they can get me in. I was so stressed out after the call from the doctor on Tuesday that I could not sleep so when I saw Dr. Guerra I was really stressed...not quite a basket case. She asked if I'd like something to help me sleep and take the edge off the stress. I accepted her offer. Never took Valium before but I sure appeciated it last night. I feel like a human being again. I slept a full 10 hours! Jim said getting me to bed was pretty funny. He got me to sit up, I said "Where's the tomatoes?" and then tottered off to bed. Don't think that I'll be taking this during the daytime!
Today I hope to not get in the car:) The drive back and forth to the hospital is about 2 hours each way....tiring but absolutely worth it to get expert care.
My friend, Beth, invited me to join Facebook and opened the door to a new and fun activity for me. I can get lost in stuff like this! So here's a link to my page on Facebook. I better not spend too much time there because it is FAMILY CALENDAR production time! You can see some of our family calendars on my Picasa Albums.
Where have I been that I never heard this group before?
My friend Lynn sent me the link to this YouTube video and I'm hooked! I've played it a dozen times while visiting with the Reverend Jack. Searched Amazon for whatever else the group has out there and am now deciding what to download. Wish I could find a DVD with this song on it! Enjoy!
We wandered over to Renee's the day after Thanksgiving to eat up leftovers and bake a few batches of cookies. Naomi selected some new recipes from Rachel Ray and they both turned out yummy. I forget the names but one was a merengue with coconut and the other was a chocolate cookie with small caramel baked inside. Wonder if there are any of those left?!
Evan had a lot of fun playing outside, especially when he found the big jug of bubble liquid. Here's a few pix of bubble fun.
Uncle Jim spent a lot of time with Evan on the floor building domino runs to knock down. Evan was fascinated with this and overjoyed when he got to push the first domino and see them all fall.
We relaxed over the weekend because this week is one of many doctor visits and hours on the road. Yesterday was another biopsy, today is Jim's eye appointment, Wednesday is my preop appointment and Friday is surgery. We've decided to stay at a hotel in Newport Beach on Thursday so the early morning arrival at the hospital is a little easier.