Catch-Up Number 3

My chemo treatments for December were timed perfectly! I had a treatment on December 14, with the next treatment not scheduled until Dec. 28. Oldest son Brian announced he would be coming in from Illinois on December 20 and would stay until Dec. 26, which meant I had plenty of time to recoup my energy from the 12/14 treatment, decorate the house and have everyone over for dinner just as we’d always done without having to worry about chemo side and after-effects.

And decorate we did!  The snowman and reindeer were set up outside to greet visitors, then we got the tree up, the mantel decorated and the stockings hung by the chimney

 with care- even though it’s an electric fireplace and there is no chimney, but you get the idea.  We even had snowmen cavorting in the kitchen window.

Brian arrived safely, we had family come down from North Alabama for a visit and soon it was Christmas day'  I cooked our traditional Christmas roast beef and Yorkshire pudding with crispy roasted potatoes and veggies.   There was a  delicious cranberry eggnog trifle for dessert, and I had baked some gingerbread men and gingerbread reindeer cookies for the kids to snack on.

Jeff, Tonya and the grandkids, Kaitlyn and Brandon, couldn’t come up from south Alabama this year since Jeff was recuperating from surgery, and Heather  didn’t make it  home from Australia, but  Misty and the boys, Nicholas and Bradley, came from Hartselle and Jonathan, Sharil and Abby came from just up the road in  Mulga. We  popped our Christmas crackers, put on our paper crowns, read the silly jokes from the crackers out loud, and had a  happy family at the table in our little kitchen to enjoy the  food before  opening our presents.

One of Brian's old friends from high school was visiting from Texas, and he, his daughter and another  old friend stopped by Christmas evening for a visit. I finally remembered to have Mr. G take a picture of Brian and me before he left and here it is-I wish I'd remembered to take the tacky green sweater off, too!
Next morning Mr. G drove  Brian to the airport for the trip home to Illinois, and the house got quiet again.  Agatha and Victoria missed all the company, I think and moped around for a while. My chemo treatments resumed on December 28 and we were back in the old groove again as we closed out 2016.

I had two more treatments in January and another on  February 8 with no problems from the port. And that brings us up to the present, finally.