Week Before Christmas and More on my Dad

I was going to end with my dad, but I think I will start there instead. I don't want to kill the Christmas vibe. My sister and I have been trying for weeks to get an answer about whether he can move into the assisted living facility where he is at. At one point my sister was there and they told her he was approved however, the financial people needed to talk to us because there was a condition. I called multiple people, leaving multiple messages on multiple days with no response. So, my sister started casually looking for other options. Then, on Friday they told us his last day of covered care was Wednesday. With the weekend and Christmas ahead, that effectively gave us 2 days to figure out a placement and move him in. I am going to make a long story short and say that there wasn't actually a condition, they just wanted to talk to us. But, she didn't call to tell me that until 4:30 Friday afternoon. Earlier in the day, I called the social worker, who actually answered the phone, and expressed my frustration, which is why I think I finally got the call back. I could write a whole saga, but I will keep it short and say that we think the place with memory care would be better, but my dad wants to stay at the Villa so we will give it a try. It was an incredibly frustrating week, as we knew he was getting close to discharge, although I thought he had at least another week, and then we got the news on Friday.  Christmas Eve we had a sibling call and filled my brothers in on everything. It was nice to chat, even if it was a somewhat sobering topic. Tuesday or Wednesday I will need to physically go to Lakeland to help go through my dad's apartment and move stuff to his new room. It feels never-ending and I will be happy when he is settled at the new place. I feel like the next couple of days of getting him in there are going to be stressful.

Back to Christmas! The biggest thing that was different about this year is the kids were in school the week before Christmas. Thomas and I also did not take any time off from work. Usually it is a fairly slow week and that was the case for Thomas. Unfortunately, I am still very busy. I was expecting a leisurely work week where I did my yearly training requirements and sorted my e-mail inbox. But, it was not meant to be. For the kids, school got less and less intense as the week went on. On Friday, 500 kids out of almost 5000, showed up. Jack and Anna were two of them. We told them they didn't have to go, but Jack thought it would be fun and Anna wanted to exchange presents with her friends. They both brought some Christmas treats, which they mostly gave to their teachers. Kara stayed home.

We are now blocked out at Disney, so there were no more Wednesday trips. Friday, we went and saw the Johanessen family lights. They are ranked the number one light display in the Orlando area and were ranked #6 in the country by USA Today. We had to park at a shopping center and then walk about half a mile. They were at the end of a small street with maybe 10 houses. None of the other houses had any light displays which leads me to believe the neighbors aren't huge fans. There was a required $10 "donation" to see the backyard, which we paid. The money goes for the police they have blocking traffic and helping people cross from the shopping center, the port-a-potties and other upkeep. It was pretty spectacular and we enjoyed walking around. It was raining when we got there, which definitely worked to our advantage crowd-wise. No exaggeration when I say that there were hundreds of people coming down the street as we were leaving. It was shoulder to shoulder and the line to pay for the backyard was probably 50 people deep. We enjoyed it, but based on that, I do not think we will go back.

They had multiple photo opps, including this fun sled.

This bear gave Luke a hug

Some of the front yard

Some of the back yard, the girls are down there, close to the heart. :)

The kids

The parents

After the lights, we stopped at Jeremiah's and enjoyed their holiday treats. Saturday, we mostly stayed home. We did go to dinner at Tijuana Flats. Their 2 for $20 lures us in. We played games and watched movies. Thomas let the older kids watch Die Hard, which they all enjoyed. I like to see Snape as the villain. Christmas Eve was more of the same, except with a lot more cooing/baking. Kara and I went for a long walk in the morning and then made the sugar cookie dough. We hadn't done sugar cookies for Santa in a few years and I decided to revive the tradition. I am glad I did. We all had a lot of fun sitting together and decorating. 

I was happy everyone wanted to participate

Jack got some shortbread cookies from a friend, so those are in plastic, but the rest are our homemade sugar cookies.

We also had our big dinner. We had ham, rolls, mashed potatoes, roasted vegetables and deviled eggs. The kids said they liked it better than Thanksgiving. The dinner question was to name one thing you hope to get and one thing you expect to get. Thomas is not getting his "hope" (a comic book), I think everyone else is. Sorry Thomas! The girls went for a bike ride, Thomas and I went for a walk and spent some time watching the two neighborhood houses that have coordinated light displays. We all reconvened around 7 to watch Charlie Brown Christmas, take a Christmas Eve photo and read 'Twas the Night Before Christmas. It was a great day!

Anna took this fun selfie. Watching Charlie Brown in our matching jammies.

Now, it is 550 AM on Christmas morning. My last quiet morning of sitting in a dark living room with the pretty lights on the tree to keep me company. I can hear the girls and Luke upstairs. I am not sure if Jack is awake yet. 

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