2024 Merry Christmas

We are getting out a little more nowadays. Still avoiding crowds and long exposures, but it's so good to be with people again, even with those limitations.

The only lights we drove out to see were the Leesburg lights; they have the whole park filled with lights like these - so beautiful!

Christmas Eve we joined our congregation in the main area with every one else. We were in the back row to limit exposure but it was wonderful to join in worship with friends.

Christmas morning Randy fixed our traditional Christmas breakfast - smoked salmon with cream cheese and capers on toasted bagels. Love this!

After breakfast we shared our presents. Shorty, who already had more toys than he can keep track of, got 3 new ones. He promptly wore himself out playing with them, then tucked one under his chin and went to sleep.

Randy spent the day preparing Christmas dinner of prime rib, potatoes, gravy, corn and peppers, and fresh rolls. Donna brought Apple Dump Cake for dessert (I got the recipe for that one!). Pete and Donna joined us, along with our neighbor Sarah. An excellent Christmas!

Thank God for the people who care for Randy

Today has been a rough day. Randy felt bad most of the night and all of the day. Although our Oncology office was fully booked, the wonderful staff squeezed him for a visit. They ended up giving him an IV of all sorts of good stuff before sending him home to rest, and the doctor gave us her personal number in case he has problems over the weekend. Excellent care.  

Additional brownie points to his nurse for making all her patients smile!

 

Tonight is the annual Christmas Golf Cart Parade in our park, and this is the second time Randy set up a cookie and hot chocolate refreshment stop. Last time so many golf carts paused to partake that the line got backed up. This time our neighbors let us set up their driveway, which had more room for impatient carts to scoot by. They also came out to help us distribute the goodies.

 

This time the golf cart drivers did something different - the whole line just parked the carts, then everyone got out and walked up to get their treats! It worked fine, especially when Randy added a little Peppermint Schnapps or Southern Comfort.

 

And a fine time was had by all! 

 

Christmas glow

We decided to put up some outside lights this year; it's the first time we did it here and I think it looks great!

Of course, to accomplish this we had to channel a bit from "A Christmas Story".

 

Another milestone

Today we drove up to Gainesville to see his Oncology doctor again. Since it's been almost 6 months since his transplant, she cleared him to get some of the childhood immunization shots to replace antibodies that the chemo killed off. He got five shots today and will need more in another two months. Since there were so many shots today, nurses Taylor and Ivy decided to double-team him - synchronized injections!

Florida pests

Florida, sweet Florida. Tonight I got "motion at the back door" alert. I thought it was an Amazon delivery so I quickly checked the ring camera on my phone and IT WAS A BEAR!  He (it was really big so I know it was the local male bear) had sunk his teeth into our garbage can and was effortlessly dragging away to the side yard. Randy beeped the truck horn several times to make sure it moved away, then we cautiously look outside. Randy has a dive flashlight which is very bright, and it showed the bear, crouched in the brush along the canal!

The bear had dragged the garbage can way back and completely hidden it in the brush. We watched for a few seconds and it stuck it's head up for quick look before continuing to eat.

We decided to leave him to his dinner. We will get our can back tomorrow...in broad daylight.
 

I'm not saying I'm old, but I am getting a crown replaced, getting knee treatment, and getting cataracts fixed. I'm a coward so this is tricky for me but every medical person I deal with is so kind and sweet about my phobias.

Now the cataract in my left eye has been fixed. This involved more eye drops than I could count and some good meds. They taped my eye open, which was the only way that eye was going to stay open. Every person along the process asked me to confirm which eye was being done; not sure that was necessary since they drew a purple arrow over it! Now, under that arrow, is a wide open pupil.

It will stay that way for a couple of days and it's very sensitive to light, of course. So here I am, protecting my very odd eye from perfectly normal light. So stylish....