Linda's Visit

We got home late on the 26th after spending the first day with Eleanor while Marie went to work.  We showed caretaker Karen what her day will look like then sent her home early while we had more discussions with siblings about what this kind of commitment really means for Marie.

 The morning of the 27th we finally opened the few gifts we had.  Mom had let me try on the boots while I was in Utah and had shown me the painting she was giving me (yes, she's an artist too!) before wrapping them up and sending them home with me.  We both look worn out in these pix!

 We had been given tickets to The Military Bowl at RFK stadium.  It was very cold but we decided we had to go if only for a quarter.  We arrived at half time and had great seats right down front.  We were surrounded by the Bowling Green fans who were playing San Jose.  Didn't really care about either team but the small crowd who had traveled to support their teams were very excited to be there. We lasted through the 3rd quarter then hopped the Metro for home just in time to snuggle into blankets and catch the end of the 4th quarter on tv.

Felt sorry for the twirlers in the freezing cold weather

 Our friend Linda flew in around 11:30 pm that night.  Tom had gone to bed because he had to work the next day but Linda and I sat up chatting until around 2 AM.  THAT is a Christmas miracle as I'm normally in bed by 9 or 10.

 Tom worked half a day then came home to join us for sight-seeing.  We stopped at our neighborhood restaurant Station 4 for lunch then headed to The Library of Congress.  You're going to have to forgive me if I keep taking photos of this place!

 Next we headed to the visitor's center at the Capitol then into the Capitol itself.

 We came home and crashed the first night over a home cooked meal and relaxation.  Saturday we decided to head to National Harbor to check it out. Linda's requests for this visit had included seafood so the harbor seemed like a good place! Settled on McCloone's Pier House.

No, that is not seafood....it is the tiramisu we shared AFTER the seafood

 We were going to go through Old Town Alexandria on the way home but detoured to Mount Vernon instead as Linda hadn't been there.  It was 4 pm when we arrived so the last tour had already left but they did let us into the visitor's center (for nothing!) to look around.  That is new since I've been there and was fascinating.  Tom and I have been listening to George Washington's biography so it was doubly interesting. Would love to go back again.  We spent a couple of hours there, in the shops, and enjoying the beautiful drive along the parkway. Settled in that night with munchies, good books and sudoku puzzles.

Got up Sunday morning and went to church before going to Ted's Bulletin (remember the pop tarts?) for breakfast.  We had brought Linda's things with us so we could drop her at the airport without having to go back home.  We also took her to Eastern Market which had fortunately moved a lot of the vendors inside because it was so cold!

After that we headed towards the White House where they're building all kinds of seating for the inauguration.

While we waited for Tom to swing back around and pick us up we stepped into a beautiful Episcopal church that was holding services.  Couldn't get pix of the gorgeous chapel but they did have this beautiful carved wooden nativity in the lobby.  Tom arrived just in time to drive to Reagan National and send Linda on her way.  It was a short but fun trip!  Always fun to show off the city.

Christmas in New Jersey

 As we were getting ready to walk out the door to head to NJ on the 20th for Christmas, Tom's sister called and said their mom was back in the hospital.  She was having difficulty breathing and they discovered blood clots in her lungs as well as one in her leg. She was on blood thinners and had a quick procedure to put a filter in to break up the clot in her leg should it break loose.  Our first few days there were spent running back and forth to the hospital.  She slept mostly and wasn't eating so it was a lot of just sitting with her.  We left one night and hooked up with the family for dinner at Outback.  Best steak I've had in a long time!

Victor, Marie, us, Karen & Joe

Tom can't go to Marie's without insisting she make meatballs.  He was required to help.

Have watched more Christmas movies this season than I have in years!

 We met up with Tom's other brother Dennis and his wife Kathy at a parade in Egg Harbor Township.  Very small town with lots of firetrucks, beauty queens and local businesses.

 It was freezing out and poor Santa and Mrs. Claus were at the very back of the parade.  It was slow moving so we walked around the block (if the parade wouldn't come to us, then we would go to it!) to see the rest of the parade then headed to a restaurant to have dinner.

 The other siblings met us there.  First time they were all together in a long, long time.

Marie, Dennis, Tom, Kathy, me, Karen and Joe

 Over a period of days we had many discussions about their mom and what happens after her hospital stay.  It was decided to bring her to Marie's with hospice care.  She turned 89 on Dec. 3rd and besides suffering from dementia her body is giving out as well.

Tom working on home improvement projects for Marie

 This has been a very difficult process.  The family would make decisions one day and then Eleanor's condition would change and we would second guess everything we had felt firm on the day before.  We told the hospital we needed 24 hours notice to get hospice set up so we were still waiting for her to get stronger.

Eleanor still calls Tom (and all of the other kids) "my baby".

Marie had to work half a day on Christmas Eve so Tom and I stopped to see Eleanor then went to Smithville to just get some air.

This is where I got my very first Santa for my collection back in the early 80's

Tom's brother, Dennis, takes care of all the mechanical problems with the trains in Smithville

Tom's favorite neighborhood sub shop

 Joe and Karen used to send us Subs on Christmas Eve for our gift every year.  A couple of years ago however, the place stopped mailing and it's never been the same.  THIS YEAR however, we bought them for lunch!  What had started as a fairly pleasant day turned into a mess when the hospital called Marie at work and said they were releasing mom in 2 1/2 hours!  We were not in the least prepared. No hospice, no training, nothing!  Fortunately Joe's wife is a nurse and could walk us through the process.  Also, Joe used to be the chief of police so called on a couple of buddies with the ambulance to pick up mom LATER so we could get set up.  Marie and I ran to Home Depot for a rug to put on the floor and a couple of other places to grab supplies.  We took those back to the house so they could get set up.  She had planned a nice pork roast dinner for Christmas Eve but suddenly that was thrown out the window with all the misadventure. We headed out for more subs and by the time we got back the ambulance was in the driveway with mom.  We ended up with a house full of people with Eleanor in the middle of the living room trying to get a sense of how this was all going to work.

Eleanor's caretaker Karen and her dog Cody

Karen (yes, there are 400 Karen's in the family) Sean and Little Dennis

 By Christmas day everyone was spent.  Especially these two!  We had Eleanor cleaned up.  Had learned how to do a bed bath, and all the other care she needs.  We made up a schedule of how we'll all help.  Caretaker Karen will come to Marie's Mon-Friday 7:30-5:30, Joe and Karen will each take a night during the week and then we'll each take a weekend on a three week rotation.  We'll start that schedule anyway but if there's anything we've learned over this Christmas holiday is that we can be flexible. We did get to have a lovely pork roast meal on Christmas.

Girly Party

 Sunday after church the teachers were taken into a room that was covered in cookies, thank you notes and pictures of all the little kidlets in our classes.  We were given a box to fill with yummy goodies and by the time we got out of there the box was overflowing.  I tried sharing mine on the way home and finally an older woman sitting by in the Metro took me up on my offer.  She then said, "Since you shared your smile and gave me a cookie I'm going to give you something to laugh about.."  She then proceeded to tell a very off color joke complete with hand gestures.  Um.  Really?  I was very uncomfortable.  Very odd indeed.

 My Tuesday night small group met at one of the leader's apartments for a Christmas potluck.  These are all the wonderful young women I get to meet with weekly to talk about the sermon, share prayer requests and have great fellowship with.

Lauren, Mallory and Kristen

Chelle, Sharon and Elizabeth

Me and Ellen

Erika- our co-leader and hostess

Tons of great food and wonderful company.  Most of the girls were heading home for Christmas the next morning.  Kind of fun to see how excited they were to go see their families.