My Little Friend...

Claude brought in the mail just a little bit ago.  There was a Christmas card for me. It was from Emerson.  He is in Primary. He is a wonderful red headed kid with soft curls and a grin that melts one's heart.  He sits with me during Sacrament meeting when Papa and Claude are not there so I won't be alone. He stays after Primary to help me put things away.  He loves to participate.  He is just a wonderful young man.

So, I looked at the envelope and found Emerson in the return address and smiled.  Here is the envelope. Don't you think the post office had fun sorting and delivering this card. I love this! I hope it gave the post office some joy during this Christmas season.

On the inside of the card, Emerson wrote a note.  Here is the inside of the card.

I cracked up at the 'Hay' at the begining.  The remainder says, "It's Emerson. I just wanted to say hi. Merry Christmas. Sincerely, Emerson."

I shall treasure this little card from this sweet boy.  This is the blessing of working with children. I am grateful for this blessing.

A couple of weeks ago Rhett asked me, "Were Adam and Eve ever babies?"  Now, think on that for a moment.  I marvel at these little ones.

Type II

Papa was obedient to not eating the sugar he usually consumes this last week. He fasted Thursday night and only had water after midnight.  I picked him up and had him at Dr. Weckman's Friday morning at 8:45am.

Dr. Weckman talked with him. The nurse took more blood samples.  The results were his blood sugar was at 161 which is a lot better than it was at 337 last week.  We go back in one month to have him checked again.

When I got Papa back to his apartment, I cleaned all the sugar out of his apartment so it wasn't there to tempt him.  I asked him if he wanted me to save it and have it on hand when the kids visit or to give it to the missionaries.  He was very happy to have it go to the missionaries. I called the missionaries and dropped it all off with them at their apartment on my way to run other errands Friday morning.

The side note to this is that Papa's blood is not as thin as it should be taking the Warfarin for his Atrial Fibrilation.  That Dr. Weckman will also watch.

And, we are off to go down the Type II Diabetes learning curve.  We are to work at keeping it in line with diet for now.  I am happy with that.  It will be hard for Papa and he has a big sweet tooth.  But he is also dogged about sticking to what he has to so I believe he will make his transition.

Adjustment...

I am a grid person. This morning I just completed my grid for the family visit over Christmas.  All arrival/departure dates, meals and snacks are entered.  I'll post this 2013 Christmas grid on my refrigerator.  Everyone will know what is planned so they can help with preparation.

I planned for family to come over a three week period the end of December and beginning of January.  I had the shell of my grid ready.

• Nissa would come this Saturday so Paul and Aubrey could be picked by their dad for Christmas break. Nissa would leave Sunday morning early. The plot was on for a nice adult dinner with Nissa, Claude and me on Saturday evening.
• Next week Jake would arrive Monday night. The Marx would arrive in time Tuesday night for a big Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve. Jake would leave Thursday late afternoon and the Marx's would leave early Friday morning.
• The weekend of January 4th, Nissa would return to pick up Paul and Aubrey from their dad.

Andie wanted to try and find an optimum time for the Mini's to come and visit with Paul and Aubrey. Hmmm...Let's find a way to make that work.  Andie needed to see if Michael was refereeing any soccer games before she could land on a real time for this to work.

Nissa called Wednesday to say she wanted to change her travel plans. There were reports of bad weather for her drive to and from Muskegon, Michigan. She would not come Friday after Paul and Aubrey got out of school. Then she would leave early Saturday morning in the hopes of being between storms.  That was fine.  I sent a text to Andie to let her know of the change. Andie confirmed Michael had a soccer game to ref on Saturday. This meant she and the Mini's would come over Friday night after their activities and be here to play with Paul and Aubrey Saturday morning before their dad came and picked them up. Good plan for everyone.

Thursday afternoon I get a call from Nissa on my cell phone.  My quick question as I answered the phone was, "You are still coming aren't you?"  I meant this in total jest.  Nissa's answer, "No."  Good grief!  I asked if she was serious and she confirmed she was indeed serious.  It seems the father of Paul and Aubrey was not going to come for reasons I choose not to share here.  (I just read a book by Herodotus about Ancient Egypt. He says that a lot and I suddenly felt like an ancient historian as I typed that!)  No visit them from Nissa and kids this weekend or the weekend of the 4th of January.

Okay, the really horrid part of this was that Nissa and Todd had just finished having an early Christmas with Paul and Aubrey since they would not be home Friday evening or at Christmas. Paul and Aubrey opened ALL their presents. Then they headed to bed. Then Nissa got the phone call from the kids father.  Now they would be home with no presents under the tree.  Good Grief!!

I sent Andie a text and asked her to let me know when I could call and we would talk. After explaining the situation to Andie, we agreed she would not come with the Mini's this weekend as they would be here in a few days for Christmas anyway.

It is all done.  I got up early Friday morning and boxed the presents I could mail to Michigan and put that box in the mail before going in to take Papa to the doctor.  The kids should now have a few items from us to open.  Jake will take the breakable items back to Michigan with him after Christmas and he and Nissa will coordinate the delivery of these presents.

Such a roller coaster of change.  There is great wisdom in learning to be flexible in life.  Sometimes it is just not fun.  Aubrey and Paul are frustrated they won't see little Elise.  Plans Nissa and Todd made had to be changed.  All will now be done in a different way but it will all work out.  And that is 'adjustment'!!  And...the grid is ready for Christmas.

Such a Nice Guy...

My hubby had a meeting to attend this morning in Berea, Kentucky at Boone's Tavern. Several weeks ago, after committing to attend the meeting, he proposed he get us a reservation for Monday night and we take a night away. Then I could have this morning to myself while he went to his meeting. I assured him I thought I could fit that into my schedule.

Yesterday, after attending to Papa and the City Commission meeting, we put our bag in my car and headed south to Berea.  We checked into the hotel portion of Boone Tavern and had a couple quiet hours to unwind before our 6pm dinner reservation in their excellent restaurant.

We enjoyed a wonderful dinner served to us by Aaron. He was just a delightful server. I had a salad with fruit and cheese on Bibb lettuce.  Claude had a salad on mixed greens with some kind of meat. For entrees I enjoyed a pecan crusted salmon with seasoned butter on top, asparagus and mashed potatoes. Claude had a pasta dish with seafoods in the pasta.  For dessert I enjoyed a lovely chocolate cake with chocolate icing and Claude had the bread pudding.  Dinner was yummy...we waddled to our room. 

I finished reading my first book about Egypt in preparation for our big trip in 2014. Claude did some reading and flipped through television channels.  I could feel all tension of normal life just flowing out of me throughout the evening.  This was great.

This morning Claude got up and got ready for his meeting.  I slept and snuggled in those wonderful covers until just before he left.  Then after showering and getting ready for my day, I checked us out of Boone Tavern and toted our luggage to the car. 

I buttoned up my coat and walked back through the Tavern to get to their gift shop. I had a coupon for a discount on their candy.  Believe it or not, this girl with a sweet tooth bought no candy. Not one piece.

There is a door from the gift shop to the outside front sidewalk. I took that door and strolled down the street.  There is one store I love with lots of homemade crafts of all kinds.  I strolled through this shop at my leisure.  Always before I was with a group where you need to sensitive to their time constraints or my hubby who just barely enjoys a little shopping. This time I could take my time and look at everything that interested me even a little bit. It was grand.  I actually found items for Bailey's birthday next year and purchased them to tuck away. 

I walked down the block a little further.  There is another store that sells handcrafted items from around the world. Love these kinds of stores.  Again I found some little items for birthdays and did it at my leisure.  What a treat. 

I next enjoyed a walk around the corner and down the sidewalk to the Log House store.  It too is full of hand crafted items.  I only purchased some spoon bread from Weisenburger Mills to share with our family coming in for Christmas. 

A dark gray cloud heading toward me made me feel I should head for shelter.  I walked back to my car and deposited my purchases, grabbed my craft bag and headed into the Tavern.  I found a chair by a fireplace and nestled in to wait for Claude to finish his meeting.  He had about a hour left.  I enjoyed reading another chapter in my next book about Egypt.  Then I crocheted until Claude came out. 

We headed back to Sadieville. However, I checked the Internet and found that The Hobbit was playing at the theater in Hamburg Pavilion which we would pass on our way home.  They had a showing right about the time we would be able to get there.  Claude was agreeable so we stopped in Lexington to watch The Hobbit before heading home.

This was such a pleasant break from all the business of December.  It just seems no matter how much I plan and prepare ahead so that December can be a relaxing time to enjoy events and feel the spirit of Christmas, there are always multiple additions to the schedule by well meaning people.  It just makes the season rushed.  Taking this breather for just this amount of time was just what I needed.  How grateful for the Big Guy and his thoughtfulness in setting this all up and giving me some time to leisurely enjoy myself.

Now I shall go upstairs and enjoy the dinner he is cooking for the two of us while I get through the laundry.  For this moment in time...life is good, very good.

My Very Own 'Wise Man'...

Saturday, December 7th, after the evening session of Stake Conference, the lady near us turned to Claude and said, "Would you be willing to participate in a live nativity this year? We need some people with beards. I have the costumes but I just can't make the beards."  Claude said he would.

This Saturday, December 14th, we went to Lexington in the morning for Claude to learn about his costume and rehearse.

Tonight was the Nativity Festival.  This is put on by our stake, the Lexington North Stake, and the Lexington Stake.  There were three large rooms with creche displays in them.  There were two large rooms with crafts for the children.  The stage in the cultural hall had a manger scene on it and the live Nativity would be acted out there at 4:30pm and 4:45pm. While this was going on different musical groups performed in the chapel. At 5pm a children's choir would do a performance and the live Nativity would move through as they sang about the different characters in the Nativity.  Then the finale would be the huge choir singing at 7pm.  Refreshments were served after this performance.  It is a very big deal and many in the Lexington community who are not members of our Church attend.

I wanted pictures of my own personal 'Wise Man'...and...here he is. My, he is handsome!! And, he is wearing purple!!

They went through this live Nativity twice.  There is a recording that tells the story interspersed with musical selections. The characters actually say nothing but come in when their music is sung.  They move on stage a bit.  It is all very touching and reverent.  Here are shots of my 'Wise Man' in each of the performances.

Now, for the truth of the need for these pictures.  Claude is running for Magistrate in 2014.  I just feel like I need to post on his Facebook page something about, "If you want to have the perfect 'Wise Man' as your Magistrate, vote for Claude Christensen."  There, I have totally burst that Christmas feeling. But it is going to be a great post.  And, if you could have seen those little children clinging to the stage and saying, "Look mommy, it is Mary and Joseph and the Baby Jesus" you would have felt that Christmas spirit.