A "Mary" Christmas

We celebrated Christmas a day early when everyone was home. Here's Mom with two of her grandsons: our son, Chris, who lives in Minnesota, and our son, David, who lives in Ohio.

There are a LOT of pictures in this post. It was fun to watch Mom also enjoying two of her great-grandsons: Chris and Tamara's sons, our grandsons, Henry and Eli, who live in Minnesota. Here Mom is watching me open a gift from Henry that he picked out himself!

Eli was modeling his new sunglasses for Gram here:

Henry's were Star Wars, his favorite!


Mom and I simultaneously opened new family photos of Henry and Eli.


Gram brought Henry and Eli each a little bear.


Not sure what Eli is showing "Gate-Gram" (Great-Gram) here.

I love the way she has her arm draped around Eli. I have a similar picture of her doing the same with one of her other great-grandchildren who visited last year. She loves little ones.


Here Eli is showing Gram his new Fisher Price "Kid Tough" digital camera. Supposedly these will survive being dropped in a toilet or dropped down the stairs!



In this photo we are enjoying a Christmas feast engineered by master chef, Phil. Visible are Chris, Eli, Mom, David and David's girlfriend, Elisa.

Below, David is serving the sparkling grape juices while Mom and Phil look on. Elisa is chatting with Henry and Tamara is enjoying using her new Canon digital camera!

There's got to be a good caption for this one, but I just can't think of it. Any suggestions?


After dinner, Mom observed while I did some serious "surgery" (sewing repair) on Henry's "Lovey" (which was a beloved gift from his Great Uncle Eric). Like the Velveteen Rabbit, Lovey, has been well-loved for almost 5 years.

Every surgeon needs good magnification! When we finished, Lovey was nearly good as new!

That's it for Christmas this year! Mom would love to see your pictures, too. Thank you for the many lovely Christmas cards and photos you have sent! I apologize, due to Phil and I both getting really sick in December, we didn't get our Christmas cards or Gram's out this year.

A Visit from Chris and Tamara and Henry and Eli

When Chris and Tamara and Henry and Eli arrived in town for Christmas, we stopped by to see Gram. We will get together again to open presents and eat a turkey feast - with David, too, who arrived a few days after these were taken. Gram lives in a place where they have a pool table in a sun room on her floor.



In the health care wing they have live birds.

In memory and honor of a dear friend

Mom recently learned of the loss of a dear friend of hers, Pat Krueger. Mom and Pat had known each other throughout their school days in Kansas City. Years later - when they both ended up living in the Dallas area - they enjoyed going to dinner, art shows, taking trips, and celebrating their birthdays together. They were life long friends. I hope to come up with a photo of them together from happier days to add to this blog entry. But whether or not I can come up with one... Here's to Mom's friend, Patricia Hope Krueger, age 84, of Plano, Texas who left the bonds of this earthly life for paradise on December 9, 2008. May God bless her and her family. Obituary published in the Dallas Morning News on 12/14/2008 by North Dallas Funeral Home 972-241-9100.

'Tis the Season

This week Mom received a live Christmas tree and wreath from my sister, Barbara Gail and her husband, Bill. We moved some of Mom's plants to the bedroom window to make room for the tree on the plant shelf in the living room of Mom's apartment.

The wreath came with a hanger for the door. It is a very robust wreath! And the apartment smells great.

In keeping with the season, Joan, in Activities at Summer Trace, took a group of us to see the Carmel High School "Holiday Spectacular" Thursday. There were about twenty of us, including three mother/daughter combos. In the picture below, Mom is wearing one of many colorful (this one is blue-green) scarves she made before she had her stroke.

This picture was taken before the curtain went up.

This was taken as the program concluded with Silent Night. These two photos do NOT do this incredible performance justice, but you were not allowed to take photos during the performance.

They were selling roses in the lobby for star performers, so I bought one for our star, Mom. Here it is back in her kitchen.

Saturday there was a huge Holiday Bazaar at Summer Trace. Along with that, one of the residents set up this Christmas display in the lobby. All of the houses are handmade with plastic framework and yarn.

Mom enjoyed looking at everything before going to dinner.

Mom is doing well. We spent six hours the other day "getting organized" in her living room, including going over paperwork and updating her address book. I want to THANK YOU all for the stacks of lovely cards and notes you have sent to Mom over the past year. It just makes her day to get a card in the mail!

We also just went to a Medicare Part D Prescription Drug Plan lecture which was presented for Summer Trace residents by the Butler University Pharmacy School. The students offered their services to research the best plans for any Summer Trace resident according to the specific meds they are on. We got a packet in the mail today with all the research done for us. Mom was thrilled.

Today we also switched over her wardrobe from summer to winter. Winter has DEFINITELY arrived in Indiana! Come see us! And thanks again for your cards and letters!

It was a Family Day!

Mom's grandson, my nephew, Mike, hopped a flight to Indy to visit Gram Dec. 1st. (One of the perks of being an airline pilot!)

After lunch at Summer Trace, Mike showed Mom some of his pictures on the computer in the library. We got to see a picture from Mike's sister, Jan, and her husband, Scott, who are vacationing in England and Scotland!

Then Mike took us to pick up Mom's new glasses.

Afterward we stopped at our house for awhile.

As I was going through our vacation mail, I found a DVD from Mike's brother, Robert, and his wife, Shelli! We got to see Mom's great-grandson, T. J., win three of this wrestling matches...

...and Mom's great-granddaughter, Jayda's, basketball game! It was a perfectly timed treat!

As Mike was leaving, Mom enjoyed seeing him in his uniform shirt.

and his pilot's jacket:

Thanks for your visit Mike! We sure enjoyed it!

Celebrating at Max & Erma's

Phil and I took Mom out tonight for an early birthday dinner. We had planned to go to Olive Garden, but it is a bit of a drive. Mom opted for Max & Erma's which is closer.

We had a special birthday card to deliver to Mom - from the White House: (You can request White House greetings online: https://app1.whitehouse.gov/greetings/home.)

It was very nice - but this photo doesn't reflect that! The shadows are from the lamp.

THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH for all the birthday cards and letters that Mom has received!!!

Yarn, Yarn and More Yarn

We didn't take any pictures at the dentist's today! But we did enjoy seeing pictures of the hygenist's dog and hearing stories about the dentist's dog. After that we headed to Hobby Lobby for one of Mom's favorite pasttimes: yarn shopping. Since her stroke, Mom has fiercely persisted in her efforts to regain the use of her right hand for one her favorite hobbies: crocheting and knitting.

Some of the prices seemed high, but we found some bargains.

I only know how to crochet - and even then, only in one pattern. I'm totally lost with knitting. So I'm not a very good companion in the crocheting and knitting department. If anyone out there is really into this stuff, share your enthusiasm with Mary. When she has dropped stitches and such, I'm not much help! (I like photography and blogging!)

We are modeling two fun scarves Mom made before her stroke.