Our 2024 Christmas Letter...

 

More of the 12 Dates of Christmas...

Tuesday, December 10th, I had office PT. Art did the stretching at the end. It really wears me out. Home for icing, Mello Yello and Josh Gates!!

I received a text message from Lori Greiving. I crocheted 50 Christmas tree ornaments before I had my surgery in May to be given to the sisters in Relief Society for Christmas. Sunday, December 8th, Jenessa Dymock (Relief Society President) and Whitney Garrett (2nd Counselor) handed these out to all the sisters at Church. Lori Greiving received one. She sent me this picture of the tree ornament hanging in her car. It seems they are going to Florida for Christmas and will not be decorating their home. This little tree will be there Christmas decoration in their car and hotel room while they are gone. How cool is that?

I rested my arm in the afternoon. Then we headed to Louisville with a stop at Chick-filA for dinner. This is my absolute favorite Christmas date in December. 

Wednesday, December 11th, a very Christmasy feel to this day as we woke up to about an inch of snow on the ground. We received some of the last of the Christmas gifts in the mail. A few more packages to receive yet. I enjoyed ripping my Amy Grant & Vince Gill CD to our thumb drives. They have such beautiful voices. 

In the evening, we have a Zoom tithing settlement meeting with Bishop Barber. Then we curled up and watched our two favorite Christmas movies. Claude's is "Scrooged". Mine is "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation". 

Thursday, December 12th, was office PT. This time Jamie did the stretching at the end. She is much more gentle. Then she took measurements of my ability to move and resist pressure with my right arm. The last time we took measurements was right after we returned home from our Route 66 trip in mid October. It has been now quite two months. I have improved 20 degrees in one direction and 28 degrees in the other directions with my arm. My ability to resist when pressure is applied to my arm is also markedly better in each direction. It was great for me to get this positive feedback. I had been feeling a bit like I was stuck in the improvement area. This confirms that, when looked at over time, I am still improving. Jamie says it is definitely not time to quite PT and I need to continue building strength in my arm. Greg Gowen also said I need strength in my deltoid and gave me some exercises for strengthening the anterior deltoid after reverse shoulder replacement. I shall continue to persevere. Jamie said she rarely sees a shoulder replacement that gets back 100% of movement. When it is reverse shoulder replacement, it can be less that regular shoulder replacement as the set up in the arm socket is now very different. I was told to take a year to heal. It is now 7 months. 

In the evening, Claude got a Guy Night while I attended the Relief Society activity. Claude really enjoyed his steak and guy movies. He was watching "In Harm's Way" when I returned home. 

The Relief Society activity was cookie decorating focusing on the symbols of Christmas. It was excellently set up. Good turn out of sisters to participate. Fun and visiting was had by all.

Friday, December 13th, was a fun day. We were married on a Friday the 13th. It has always been a good day for us. I filled my morning in Sandiland and then went to the living room with a crochet project. I haven't done this since before my surgery in May. This is a snowflake. I will make 50 of these to be given as the Christmas gifts to the Relief Society sisters in December 2025. Crocheting using muscle movement that is different from my normal movement. I am sure it will be good exercise. And, I have a year to get it done!

Time for some 12 Dates of Christmas. We did two dates this night. We had to be in the Louisville area in the evening, so we decided to do an afternoon date at Lights Under Louisville. This is where you drive your own car through the Louisville Mega Caverns which are decorated with Christmas lights. This year there were more lights than last year. It was a pure delight. We were both amazed at how great they were.

We finished this date at Mango's, a Mexican restaurant that is family owned. This was our first time there and we would go back. We enjoyed a shrimp cocktail. They cook the shrimp and serve it in their own signature sauce. Oh man. This sauce was excellent. I put some of it on my rice and that was also great.

Then we went to Oldhams County High School to hear Bailey play in the Jazz Cafe for December. Such fun Christmas music. I can't share it with you as the files are too big for Blogger. But it was great fun. I found myself singing along. They had "Not So Silent Night" on the program. It was "Not So Silent" but great fun. I wonder what Franz Gruber would think? The kids get to dress in Christmas attire and many sported lights on their instruments. Christmas fun!

To cap our evening off, when we returned home we had a little bit of eggnog each. Yum!!

Saturday, December 14th, we had NOTHING on our calendar. Rain was headed our direction in the evening. We did our thing in our respective Sandiland and Study. Then we headed out for an early dinner. 

Sunday, December 15th, was a full Sabbath Day. I awoke early enough to do my home PT and ice before getting ready for church. We attended church and enjoyed it very much. Then off to Jimmy John's to get a sandwich for our meal. We took it home and ate at home. 

Then we changed into other clothing and drove to Louisville to the Youth Performing Arts School. This is where Bailey goes each Sunday afternoon to practice with the Louisville Youth Orchestra. This Sunday all the ensembles in LYO would perform. Bailey plays in the Repertory Ochestra. The program was entitled "There's No Business Like Snow Business". 

After the concert, Michael took us all to WW Cousins for dinner. This place is like the old Fuddrucker Restaurants. They are known for their burgers. 

We made our way back to Georgetown in time to watch a couple of television shows before heading to bed.