We're Shot...

During my mother's last few months in the nursing home, she had shingles. We were not allowed to visit her during this time. This was when I learned that, if you have had chicken pox, you can get the shingles. I also learned there is a vaccine which can possibly prevent you from getting shingles or have them be less intensive if you get them. This is available to those over 60 years of age.

Claude and I each went to our doctor in November and got a blood test that determines if you have ever had chicken pox. We both found out we have had chicken pox. Therefore we both were susceptible shingles. Next step, getting the vaccine.

Our doctor wrote prescriptions for each of us in November.  We were told the vaccine was live and we would need to basically stay away from babies, pregnant women and people with low immune systems for whatever reason for about two weeks. I don't know about the world in which others move but for Claude and me we can't go anywhere that you might not run into those groups of people, especially at church. So we tried to find a time when we would have minimal interaction with others. Hmmm...

We figured once everyone left after Christmas would be the best timing. I called CVS Pharmacy yesterday and they do not administer the shot. I called Kroger Pharmacy and they did give the shot. Today was the day.

We plotted a trip to Georgetown. First to the dry cleaners, next lunch at Jimmie Johns, followed by a stop at Papa's, picked up Claude's prescription, to the movie theater to see The Hobbit and finally to Kroger for shots.

We use CVS Pharmacy so there was extra paperwork to fill out because we've never filled a prescription there before and because the shot requires extra paperwork. The entire process took about 45 minutes start to finish.

As the young man administers our shots, I asked him about staying away from people for two weeks. He told us that was not necessary. We were amazed. We left determined to be careful who we are around just to be safe. But we don't have to be locked down for two weeks. Although, two weeks being assigned to my home and not allowed to leave while I felt healthy would not be bad thing by any stretch of the imagination. I believe I could fill those two weeks with things I want to accomplish in my home just fine.

So...we are shot!!

Ties that Bind...

One of the blessings of Christmas is an opportunity for family to be together. This isn't always possible, but when it does happen it is a great time to build those relationships. We were blessed this year to have all our kids, sons-in-laws, four out of five grandmonsters and my father join us for Christmas. He brought Tiny and I invited a friend from Church who had no family to be with on Christmas day.

My Christmas post this year is photos of things we did as a family that helped to bind us closer together.

First, the category of food, lots and lots of food and treats. The Tyler's provided a biscuit and gravy breakfast one morning and the Marx's provided chocolate eggnog pancakes with eggnog syrup Christmas morning. Claude smoked a brisket for Christmas dinner. The grandmonster made and decorated Christmas cookies for Santa and the family just to name a few of our culinary pleasures.

There were many fun cousin moments. Here are a few.

The Marx family elf, Harry George, also made an appearance. He came in his gingerbread house bed from La Grange. The first night in Sadieville he wrapped the doors in streamers. The second night he painted everyone, and I do mean everyone's, nose red.

 

Adults had lots of opportunity for family time as well.

Christmas morning was filled with opening presents.

In short, it was good to have our family together again. We truly missed having Katelyn with us but kept in touch digitally and had a nice Skype session on Christmas day. On Christmas morning, before the little ones came upstairs, we all gathered on the stairs for our Christmas photo of every one in our home for Christmas.

Not long after opening presents we received an eMail from Katelyn with this picture attached.

Our Katelyn alone on her stairs. Tore at my heartstrings. However, Katelyn is a trooper and I believe, when all was said and done, that she enjoyed her grownup Christmas pretty much on her own.

I finish this Christmas with a grateful heart for a warm home that will filled with loving family and a place for friends. We have had another opportunity to bind our family a little closer, even with all our differences. I am richly blessed.

The Right Feeling...

This Christmas I purposely had all the shopping done and gifts wrapped by the week after Thanksgiving. Forty-two years of married Christmas' have taught me that, even, if very well prepared, December will always, and I do mean always, throw you some stuff for which you just didn't plan. So I left November and entered December feeling I was ready for everything that might come and thus prepared to experience that Spirit of Christmas as things flowed through December.

I've had the opportunity to participate in and be part of several Christmas Spirit-filled events this December. But yesterday was one that truly touched my heart strings and made me feel like I know this season of the year is supposed to truly feel.

Our Countryside Homemakers Club donated non-perishable food in lieu of exchanging Christmas ornaments this year. I filled two boxes with this food at our December 5th meeting. The lady in our club that was going to deliver this food had a death in her family and could not attend. So I kept the food and told the other ladies I would find where we committed to give this food and deliver it.

The next week, on Monday, I put the food in the back seat of my car so that when I was in Georgetown I could deliver it. The destination was to be a soup kitchen. I called the Scott County Extension office to see if they could tell me where to deliver the food. Connie, the director, was just about to start a huge meeting and said she would find out and call me back. She did mention in brief conversation that it was located somewhere on Bourbon Street. The lady heading this effort at the county level had a sick husband, so Connie was going to need to do some research and call me back. I waited and never got a response. Claude spoke with Connie and she remembered the request, just not who requested.

I determined this week I would make that delivery. I got out on the Internet and searched for Soup Kitchen's in Georgetown, Kentucky. Buried in a list of possibilities, I finally found The Gathering Place on Bourbon Street. I called the phone number on their website. A very nice lady answered the phone. I explained my desire to deliver these two boxes of food. She said she would be in until 4pm that day. That fit great with my schedule.

I headed into Georgetown at 1pm. My afternoon included dropping off the food boxes, hitting the dollar store, practicing the organ for Sunday's Christmas program, going to the nursing home with Papa, finding me something for dinner, shopping for all those groceries needed for Christmas, and then home to put all those groceries away. I would get home about 9pm. See what I mean about Christmas throwing stuff at you. All the things I was doing were good and most were to benefit others. But they still make for a hectic afternoon and evening.

My first stop was The Gathering Place. I pulled up in front and parked on the street. There was a wide driveway between their building and a little building next door. This little building looked to be part of The Gathering Place's effort. There were several people working around a garbage bag full of clothing. They were picking out what would work for them and their families. They looked up and smiled at me and I asked if they were part of The Gathering Place and was that where I was to leave the food I brought. They told me I needed to take it to the side door of the building I parked in front of. I started to lock my door and walk down the driveway to the door. One of these sweet ladies said, "You just drive your car right down there and I'll knock on the door for you." I started to tell her I would be happy to do it myself but I decided to not do that and let her help me. It just felt right.

She knocked on the door, I pulled my car up and parked. Around the corner from the back of this little building came the lady I spoke with on the phone. She was all smile and remembered my name. I thanked the lady for getting her for me and she also smiled really big. I opened my car door and took out the first box. The lady running The Gathering Place took it. I went to the other side of my car and got the second box. We went in the back door.  She and another lady had been sorting through their food supply to prepare for the Christmas event. 

This is where my heart filled to the brim. It had been building since those kind people looking through other people's clothing donations paused to help me. It reached full as I saw floor to ceiling shelves in a tiny space with two good-hearted ladies working to stretch that food to feed many for Christmas. That, my friends, is the true Spirit of Christmas. It felt so very good to share what our ladies had donated in this effort.

I'm grateful for that small moment in time that will make this Christmas have so much more meaning. I'm eager to share in our January meeting with the Homemakers the joy this Christmas felt for me because of this experience. The Amen House is in Georgetown. We could have donated there. I could have driven there and given our boxes easily because I know exactly where the Amen House is. I'm so grateful I waited and then found The Gathering Place and donated there. I hope I never forget that wonderfully warm feeling of interacting with all the people I met at The Gathering Place.

Now for the next great Spirit of Christmas feeling...my family will be here Saturday. That will complete the experience for 2012.  

Long Distance Motherly Angst..

Yesterday, while I was at my desk talking on the phone, Claude received a call on his cell phone upstairs from Katelyn. He came downstairs, phone in hand, Katelyn still on the line, and said, "Which of your two daughters do you think is in the ER with a butter knife cut to her hand?" I only paused a minute before I said, "Nissa!" and he replied, "Yep".

 

I told Laura I would need to call her back. It wasn't a minute or two before Katelyn said she had to get off the phone. It seems the doctor was going to do something to Nissa's hand that she couldn't look at.  I told Claude, "Katelyn is there for her mother but from this far under certain circumstances." We got a chuckle of Katelyn in the gag reflex running from the ER area.

 

Here is what happened to the best of my understanding after talking with Nissa last night.

 

Nissa was cutting paper off a chicken wrapper with a butter knife, the knife slipped and Nissa cut her thumb. She got the bleeding stopped and thought she would go to her doctor to see if she needed stitches. As she pulled on her jeans, she heard a pop. She called Katelyn and said, "We're going to the ER."

 

In the ER they tried to find her tendon and couldn't.

 

She was sent to a specialist in hand surgery. He also couldn't find the tendon. He bandaged her up and sent her home with the understanding they would try and find a spot in the surgery room schedule and with his and another doctor's schedule to find the tendon and fix it. They hope to have that done by Friday.

 

They believe they will have to start the surgery like carpal tunnel surgery by cutting her wrist, pulling the tendon out at the wrist, stitching it to something that they can then run back up through her hand and pull it out to stitch at the thumb. Yuck.

 

I found myself worrying all night and as I awoke this morning about the pain Nissa is in and how quickly they can get this surgery accomplished. It amuses me that Nissa is grown, a mother of three kids that are nearly grown, married to a great guy that will take good care of her and be sure she obeys the instructions to heal, and yet, with all that, I still have all the feelings of a mother with a little kid that is hurt. That maternal thing just doesn't go away because of years. Albeit is a little easier to deal with, which is good because I live eight hours away. But it is, amazingly, still there in full force.

 

All the kids and grandmonsters, with the exception of Katelyn who has to work, were to come in the Saturday. Not sure how that will work for the Tyler clan now. If they don't come, not sure Jake will make it as they usually pass by his home and he rides down with them. We are praying for a quick open slot in the surgery schedule that will work for both doctors. The quicker they do this surgery the better. Not good to leave that tendon unattached for any time at all.

 

In the meantime I awoke this morning to a wonderful picture of my beautiful oldest child on Facebook. Her hubby fixed her hair this morning and she was at work. Did my old mothering heart so much good!!!

  

Date Night at the Village...

Saturday, Claude and I paused in the rush of the season to enjoy a quiet evening together. Our destination, Shaker Village. We had reservations for the 6:30pm seating for dinner.

We arrived about 3:30pm and checked on purchasing tickets to go to the events we chose at Shaker Village that evening. These were all actually included in the purchase of our dinner. But we were doing the events first and dinner at the end. They kindly gave us our little stickers to prove we paid before we paid so we could go ahead and enjoy our full evening.

The first thing we wanted to do was go to the Meeting House and listen to the Bluegrass Dulcimer Club perform Christmas music. This was a real treat. The acoustics in the Meeting House are amazing. The sound just rolls around and fills the room. No need for microphones. As the dulcimers played the audience joined in singing lovely Christmas music. They also played some Christmas music peculiar to the mountain folk of eastern Kentucky. I video taped as much of the music as I could so that Papa could see and hear it later. Claude was particularly fascinated with a couple of the music stands the musicians used. It was a nice start to our evening.

We also wanted to tour the Center Family Dwelling. The Shaker's lived as families but there was no marriage and no marital relations. The 'family dwellings' had the men living on one side of the house and the women living on the other side of the house. From the basement to the attic there are wide hallways down the center of each floor with stair ways on either side of the hallway. The men literally used the stairway on their side and the women used the stairway on their side. These family dwellings are really big houses.

I've been through Shaker Village at least three times during the summer months and been through all these buildings. This tour would be different. First, it was a candlelight tour. Second, the focus would be on how the Shaker's observed Christmas. We were told the Shakers were a lot like Quakers and tried to worship as it was originally intended, which did not include celebrating Christmas. However, one of the women had difficulty putting on her shoes on a Christmas day. Ann Lee, the founder of the Shaker's, determined this was a sign from God they should observe Christmas. It was determined they would treat the day like a Sabbath. Minimal work would be done and more time given to worship.

We were able to get in the 5pm tour. At the beginning of the tour, our tour guide, dressed in  Shaker apparel, asked for volunteers among the adults to carry lanterns with wax candles in them. Claude quickly made his way to the front and got a lantern.

The tour guide would take us through each floor where others dressed as Shakers would act out the purpose of that floor.

On the basement level they collected spices for the baking of the Christmas feast. This meal would be for those living in the family dwelling. But it would also include any others who came and needed food.

On the main level they made 'poor boxes'. These boxes were filled with foods, clothing, linens, and small toys made for the children. These would be delivered to those in need.

The next floor had a most touching scene. There was a table and two chairs set in the wide hallway. The guide told us the Shakers also took Christmas to perform a rite recorded in John in the Bible. It was done at the Last Supper. Two ladies came out from one of the bedroom. They never spoke while the narrator read from the scriptures about Jesus washing the disciples feet, Peter protesting and then asking for Jesus to wash not his feet only but his head and hands also. During his reading each sister, as they call each other, washed the other's feet and dried them. Having just taught this to my Institute class, I was deeply touched by this scene. I as able to catch the entire thing on video.

We were then led into the dining room for the family. Here our guide gave the other actors the spices collected from the basement. They were setting the table for the meal and through their acting we were told about their meal.

Our final room was the meeting room in the family dwelling. This was a big open room with a Christmas tree at one end. There were two ladies in there singing Shaker hymns. We were all taught a simple Shaker hymn and sang with these two ladies. Then we were encouraged to help them decorate the tree as we all sang "Silent Night".  Claude helped decorate the tree and hold his lantern so there was light as it was definitely darker outside now. I tried to take video, knowing the picture wasn't going to be good because of the light issue, but wanting to have the audio.

We were led down the back stairs and out to the lawn. Delightful tour and very different than what you get as you tour at your own pace during the summer.

By now they had two fire pits ablaze in the lawn area to the side of the Meeting House. There was a table and we were treated to hot chocolate and chocolate covered pretzels. Yummy. Claude and I took ours to a bench by the fire.

We would go to the Trustee's Office next and wait for our turn for dinner. Nothing quite like sitting in a rocking chair by the Christmas tree and just rocking, chatting and thinking.

Dinner was wonderful. We ate two items we have never tried before. The first was pickled okra. I loved fried okra and okra in shrimp gumbo. But I have never in my 62 years had pickled okra. It was delicious. The second was salsify. I have seen the word before and thought it was pronounced like the 'fy' was a long letter 'i'. Not so my friends. It is pronounced with the 'fy' sounding like 'fee'. They import this root vegetable from Belgium and serve it in the winter. They bake it in a cream sauce and it is quite tasty. I also had the lemon pie which is a real Shaker recipe. It is not sweet at all and is actually a little bitter. They thinly slice the entire lemon, rind and all. Somehow they blend it up so the filling is a mashed consistency and you still have bits of rind to chew. It was tasty also. Claude enjoyed one of his favorite desserts, bread pudding. Delicious meal.

As we dined, Claude and I determined this might just make a wonderful tradition for Claude and I to do each year. It sure made a wonderful 'date night at the Village'.

Christmas Magic...

Tonight Santa arrived in Sadieville in the Sadieville Patrol Car. Lights were flashing, sirens were blaring, and Santa was happy.

The Scott County Public Library provided this excellent evening of Christmas magic for the kids. They only asked that all the kids get a ticket during the two weeks prior. Tickets were free. They were given to add to the fun of the event and to regulate the number of kids in each of the readings of the Polar Express which were done in Sadieville's caboose. The Library requested and Eagle Creek Baptist Church agreed to let us use their building for Santa, a craft activity and a place to serve hot chocolate and cookies.  

Santa would spend most of his time inside the Eagle Creek Baptist Church where they had a room set up for him to sit and talk with the kids.

The kids were able to visit with Santa before their time to go to the caboose for their reading of The Polar Express. He would give each one of them a candy cane.

The conductor was there to lead the kids to the caboose and take their tickets for their reading of The Polar Express.

 

The caboose had been decorated with some lights outside. Inside there were lots of blankets on the coal bins and storage areas for the kids to sit on.

This is actually the toilet in the caboose. We wrapped it like a present to conceal it and so none of the kids would sit on it. Claude had the idea to make it look like a package.

There would be a man, Brad Hadaway, who would actually read The Polar Express and Mary Lou White, from the library, to hold a second book and show the pictures so all the kids could see it.  

After their turn hearing the story, Santa would meet them outside the caboose and give each child a silver bell.

The kids would go back to Eagle Creek Baptish Church to have cookies & hot chocolate and make a craft. If they had not had a chance to sit on Santa's lap and talk with him, they could visit with him then.

This was just a fun event. However, it did not come off without a hitch. The caboose has electricity going into it. That had been tested prior to this event to be sure all would come off well. When the library got to the caboose this evening, the lights outside the caboose were fine but inside...no lights. Not good. Fortunately we have a good citizen, Brian Reese, who came down and fixed the electicity inside the caboose.

Here are a few fun pictures of cute moments from the evening.

One little girl leaving the craft room was showing me her bell. She was so happy. Then she said, "But we're not going to the liberry." The ladies at the refreshment tables told her to come to the library and her mom told her they were not going tonight. So cute.

This picture was taken at the moment of my favorite quote of the night.

These adorable little guys were sitting on Santa's lap. As I snapped this picture the little guy on the right was saying to Santa, "Are you watching me?" Music popped in my mind to the song "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" The verse says, 

He sees you when you're sleeping
He knows when you're awake
He knows if you've been bad or good
So be good for goodness sake

I wondered if this cute little guy was bad and worried or good and just wanted to be sure Santa knew that. I left the room with a chuckle and a grin.

What a wonderful event for the kids. Thank you Scott County Public Library for making this Christmas Magic happen. Thank you Eagle Creek Baptist Church for opening your home and hearts so Christmas Magic could happen. Thank you Santa for helping each child feel that Christmas Magic. Thank you City of Sadieville for restoring that lovely caboose so it could be open for such wonderful events.