How Was Your Christmas?

Christmas was a VERY busy time for me this year.  In November I was invited to return to a Holiday Shopping Open House the weekend before Thanksgiving.  One of my daughter's friends, Lani Harmon, sells Mary Kay Cosmetics and opens her home to around 10 vendors over a weekend.  We display our goods, sell and take orders.  It's a fun, relaxed atmosphere with food and music.  I always make new friends and meet up with old friends.  I got quite a few orders that weekend.  I also had orders from my Etsy shop and orders from local customers.  I was sewing everyday right up to two days before Christmas.

I made a lot of lace Christmas ornaments.  Everyone seemed to love those.

Another popular item was kitchen towels.  One of the most popular was one with the Fruits of the Spirit on it.  These towels are a wonderfully soft, absorbent,100% cotton waffle weave.  This design, as well as other scripture verses that I have, are so colorful they will match any kitchen. This particular design came from a collection by Designs by JuJu. I have several scriptures that are wonderful for towels. 

  

 My Mom's favorite verse is Isaiah 40:10.  I didn't have a towel with that so I made one for her.  I didn't arrange them in an artistic arrangement.  She is 90 and would rather have it just plain.  Below  is the towel I did for her.

 Some of these verses are great on burp cloths and blankets also. Bright, colorful and just plain Happy!

Once I finished all of my sewing, I turned my efforts to baking and cleaning.  Three days before Christmas.  Christmas Day arrived and I was so looking forward to all of the family being at my house.  My son brought my elderly parents who live 30 miles away.  My mother is 90 and my dad is 94.  Mom is almost always cold, so when she started complaining of being cold, we put a blanket over her.  We were waiting for my daughter and her family to arrive.  Mom started having severe chills.  I knew she was starting to run a fever.  I took it but it was normal but I suspected it was going to go up.  I was running back and forth from the living room where mom was to my kitchen, trying to get dinner ready.  

Just as my daughter and her family were walking in the door, Mom started vomiting.  She didn't bring up large amounts but it kept happening.  We hurriedly opened presents and got our dinner.  Mom was continuing to go down hill.  We had a heating pad on her and a wool blanket.  Her temp went up to 102.  At this point, I didn't want her to go back home without being seen by a doctor.  I knew she was dehydrated and she was getting a little confused.  I knew that I couldn't get her in the hospital by myself so I told my daughter to call an ambulance.  Mom and I arrived at the ER around 6 PM.  Blood work and a CAT scan of her belly showed nothing.  They wanted a urine sample and kept waiting for her to go but I kept telling them she was dehydrated.  They finally listened to me and hung a liter bag ( 1000cc) of NSS.  She still didn't have to go so they catheterized her and only got 400cc back.  I thought they should have given her more fluid but they didn't.  They discharged her at 2AM.  At least the fluids lowered her fever and she was more alert.  We drove to my house to pick up my husband. He did not want me on the road by myself at that time in the morning.  My son had already taken my father back home.   I got in bed at 4AM.

The next morning I awoke early :-( with a terrible sinus headache.  I called mom at 10 AM and found that she had still not urinated since they had catheterized her.  She does not like to drink a lot.  I threatened her with a return visit to the hospital to get more fluids.  By noon, she finally started urinating on her own.  She was weak but doing okay.  I don't think it was a stomach virus because she didn't vomit large amounts or have diarrhea.  In addition, no one else in the family got sick and her blood work did not indicate a virus.

Not the Christmas I had planned but it could have been worse.  I am thankful for all of God's protection through all of that.  In addition, I have terrible back pain almost everyday.  For the first time in a long time, I had no pain while I baked and cleaned.  And no pain for the 8 hours I had to sit in the terrible chair in the ER.  That was definitely a gift from God.

On a VERY happy note, two years ago today our little Pixel came to live with us. He is a 4.9lb pure bred Yorkie. He was rescued from a puppy mill and had never been out of a cage in his 5 years of life.  His fur was long and matted.  Every touch from a human was terrifying for him.  He didn't know how to run or jump off of anything.  Now he hops up and down off the sofa and gallops everywhere.  He's still a little nervous in new situations but is SO much better than when we got him.  He absolutely adores my husband.  Here are some Christmas pictures of him and of our pug/terrier mix, Tommy, and two of our precious grandchildren opening presents.

 The picture below was taken a couple of weeks before Christmas when we were decorating the tree.  I put Pixel in the hat and he didn't mind so I laid him on the sofa.  He stayed in that hat for over an hour.

                         

 These pictures were taken Christmas Day.

                                          

 Our grandson is 2.  He would very gently rip the paper off a present with encouragement.  The minute he saw something in the package , he'd say " WOOK!"   Our granddaughter, opened one present and disappeared.  We wondered where she had gone.  How many 4 year olds walk away from opening presents????  We called to her and discovered that she had gone back into the kitchen to snag another  Sweet Roll.  They are a delicious yeast roll I've been making for many years.  They are loaded with butter and sugar so I only make them for special occasions.  We have no idea how many she ate that day.  She absolutely loved them.  It made me so happy to see another grandchild enjoying a family tradition.  Don't you think you'd love these rolls?

I hope your Christmas was filled with many blessings and was a little more calm than mine was!