December 25, 2011
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Feliz Navidad! Merry Christmas!
TALES FROM THE BRAT FARM
Chewlee was playing with her Leap Frog pad that had a Dora the Explorer game/learning card in it. One of the games has Dora putting pyramid blocks in their proper place. The blocks could be touched and their number would be given in Spanish. You then had to *lift* the block onto the properly numbered spot on the pyramid. It was a cute interaction of English and Spanish and one that Chewlee enjoyed. She kind of mangles the pronunciation a bit but she’s getting better. She did ask me how to say Merry Christmas in Spanish and I told her. She repeated it several times but never told me if there was another reason for wanting to know except curiosity.
It’s very late and I am, once again, awake. I have no idea why but the minute I lay down, no matter what position my left foot is in, it starts to hurt like hell. I have an open wound on my heel that is taking it’s time healing (partly because I keep hitting it where it’s most sensitive and the bandage doesn’t help). It’s so black and blue from that, I can’t even begin to tell you. If I sit up and keep that foot on the floor, almost no pain at all. My doctor, the wimp (and I think he’s also a bit of an idiot), just doesn’t want to renew my pain pills. I’ve been on them for quite some time but for different problems. The reason I think he’s an idiot is that it says, specifically, on ALL sites regarding medications that you do NOT stop them suddenly. You are supposed to be weaned off of them so there are no adverse side effects. I”m lucky. I don’t seem to be addicted to them and haven’t had any bad reactions except that I AM in pain and could scream at times, especially when I hit that damn heel. When I have the pills, I try to take them before bedtime rather than during the day so that I can get to sleep. That’s what I miss right now. I will be running on damn little sleep tomorrow. In fact, all week it’s been an hour or two here and there every day. No really good sleep at all. I swear, when I see my doctor next week, I have quite a few things to say to him about the quality of his *care*. He’s just too damn young to take care of older patients. I mean it. He has no idea how fragile we can be at times.
Balls to the wall in the morning getting everything ready to go so we can eat at the proper time. Poor Sheepie was saying she had to go the BF’s family dinner (now that they are engaged, I guess you have to consider it *required* eating….LOL) but at least it’s not until later in the day (around 6pm or so). At least Chewlee will eat *pig chicken* (pork) even though she prefers hers more like *the other white meat* than pink. She won’t touch the mashed potatoes but will love the green bean casserole and eat that. I am pretty sure I have some cranberry sauce that I will pull out and have available. I happen to like it with my ham. Sweet potato casserole is also on the agenda by popular demand. I can’t blame them. It’s good. We will have baked corn casserole. Cottage cheese/fruit salad. Coconut cream pie and blueberry pie. We have some rolls I will crisp for those that want to make a small sandwich of the ham as well as some nice seeded rye bread. There won’t be a shortage of food, that’s for sure. Then it will be a matter of sending some of it home with my niece, Tara, and her kids as well as making a plate up for one of our *orphans* that will be working at a convenience store on her way home. We always send him a nice plate for all the *eating* holidays.
I found out this evening that we lost another of our aunts. This one was my father’s youngest sister. She’s had a bad heart and a semi-sad last few years. She and her husband lost their oldest son a few years ago. Very tragic and the news was delayed due to the fact that his identification was apparently *lifted* by one of the onlookers before emergency personnel got there so he was a *John Doe* for a couple weeks. I suppose that’s what is bad about families no longer living closeby each other in this day and age. Weeks can go by with no contact and it doesn’t seem all that odd to us.
What is scary about all this is that my siblings and I are now those *aunts and uncles* that will be showing their mortality WAY TOO SOON in my book. There are still a couple loose cannons left (uncles and aunts of MINE) and it makes me want to clutch them to my bosom and close to my heart so that I don’t lose them too soon. It’s bad enough we lost our mother and father sooner than we were ready to. Especially mom. I still miss her. I watch the little ones and know how they would make her heart so full of joy and happiness. I even miss that look on her face she would get. I love you, Mom. I miss you and love you, too, Dad. Hope to see you in the light one day….just not too soon, please.
Love you all and I wish you a most Joyous Day with family, friends and neighbors. Eat well. Don’t drink and drive and keep the joy and happiness of this season close to your hearts.
