Happy New Year!

How was your week in between Christmas and New Year’s Eve? Dennis was in bed by nine last night. I stayed up till long after midnight researching Alzheimer’s information for Mom. Really exciting, right? We are entering a new phase and she seems to have developed more issues over the past few weeks. It’s a confusing time for all of us as we try to navigate this road together.

Christmas decorations have been put away for another year. I always like to have the house back in order by January 1. We had music playing on the TV on YouTube. The three people you see on the screen are siblings who sing so beautifully together. I don’t remember what their names are though, as we’ve just discovered them this week.

Dennis took down the outside lights and put them away. Tomorrow he goes back to the surgeons office for X-rays to see if his hand is healed enough to take the splint off. You will probably hear him whoop for joy if he’s told he doesn’t have to wear it anymore. Six months has been a long time and he gets very frustrated at not being able to do the things he wants to.

I don’t know why this photo is so blurry, but this is Dennis‘s brother, Doug, Mom and Dennis on Christmas day when we had them all over for dinner. Doug‘s girlfriend took the photos and sent them to me. It’s crazy that they’re so blurry.

This is one of my favorite photos taken that day. Mom and her two boys. The Alzheimer’s is definitely getting worse and all of the activities this week have not helped. She has been very agitated and anxious.

I’ve been working on another sweater for Piper. It’s not progressing as fast as the last one, but we’ve had some very busy times over the past few weeks. Right now I’m knitting the shawl collar. This is the “Portage” pattern that I’ve made for Mandy and myself.

I’ve been driving back to our old apartment building twice a day to walk the dog of our neighbor there. She had surgery last week and isn’t supposed to walk Lucy yet. It’s surprising how much time driving there and back takes. It does help explain why I don’t seem to get much done around here right now.

I need to get busy packing for our trip. We leave in less than 2 1/2 weeks and I’ve done virtually nothing so far. We booked this cruise well over a year and a half ago and the time has finally arrived. We will be sailing on the brand new Carnival Jubilee that had its first cruise just this past week. It holds over 6200 people plus the crew! It’s a huge ship. We’re going with our friends, Neal and Jenny from Spokane. They are flying to Galveston, but Dennis and I are planning to drive down. Since we booked it so long ago, we got an amazing deal on the price. People who booked later are paying double and triple what we did for the same cabins. It is Dennis’s, Neal and Jenny’s first cruise, so I hope all goes well. 

A reminder of the love and promise that has been given to all of us.

Blessings and love to you in the new year.

Betsy