4 & Fifteen: December 2016

It is Christmas night (music) and we had a lovely quiet day.....going to church this AM, then spending the rest of this rainy day all snuggled in our basement, with food, music, movies and football. We both took naps and I worked on a wool stitchery, which I love to do while I watch football.

We are slowly getting things back to a "normal life", whatever that is. Although the Silver Fox is still struggling with PMR (polymyalgia rhuematica), he has another set of labs this week. We will see if they will be adjusting his prednisone level coming up. My eye is doing well and there is very little residue left in my left eye, I barely notice it.

For those that hadn't heard, I had a significant tear in my left retina right before we came home from our visit with daughter #4 and family in Tennessee.....this was the end of October. The kicker was we didn't know that when we came home and it wasn't until I saw the retinal specialist back here that I got that diagnosis.....I spent a chunk of November at the eye doctor, having laser done on my left eye twice with several appointments having to be prepped for surgery in case he didn't like the way it looked. Not a good time for the migraines either, as my sight was nonexistent in my left eye, so put a strain on my right eye to try and compensate. By the time we had thanksgiving my eye was much better and we were between medical episodes.....but didn't know that at the time.

The Silver Fox was not feeling well right after Thanksgiving, but nothing really telling.....a lot of symptoms like flu....achy, uncontrolled temps.....then it moved into lip edema, then one night half his tongue swelled up among other issues. So over about a 8 day period he was in the hospital twice, once for 23 hours and the next time part of 3 days. He had a ba-jillion tests before they came up with PMR and frankly none of the options they threw out was anything you wanted to deal with. So at this point he is still dealing with various issues as we work through what the dosage needs to be. Steroids are the treatment, so not a great choice, but that is all there is for this. We are praying that he doesn't have to stay on it for an extended time. The good news out of all of this, was he had his heart checked out because of his family history and his heart is good.....well bless it! I knew that all along! But really it is good to have a baseline and know there was not any issues at this time with his heart.

I am so very grateful these two things didn't happen at the same time.....not sure how we would have navigated through that. I can't tell you how grateful I am that my sight was restored and that they were able to figure out Jeff's issue fairly quickly....even though it was a stressful time. The verse that kept coming to mind is Philippians 4:6-7, what a great truth to lean on.

We don't celebrate our immediate family Christmas until next weekend....so I still have a few more days to get my act together for that. My girls did most of my shopping for me this year....which was appreciated and most of the rest I did online....don't just love Amazon Prime! They pretty much have me with 2 day free shipping!!!! And they bring it to my door!!! Not to mention I know the names of my delivery guys.....they are awesome!!!! Did I mention, they bring it to your door!!!

We have a wonderful light display that has been going since the 1960's.....so we are into 5 generations of our family who have enjoyed them. I am not sure they are going to continue doing this, which I was sorry to hear.....but sooooo much work and the weather has not been kind to the Vinton area these past few years.....so much wind and tree damage. I wanted to video it to save some of these memories for our family......we have taken our kids and many of our grandkids to it over the years.....so fun! If you would like to read more about the history behind this family story, my friend, Dean Close tells it beautifully.....Vinton Today Kersten Interview.

For this year......this will have to suffice for my Christmas card.....that is just not going to happen....I was grateful to get 2 customer quilts done during the month of December and thankfully did not have any scheduled for the month of November.....the Lord knew I wasn't going to be available. :)

I need to go back about 35 years maybe to tell the stories of these name ornaments. This was when I was doing a lot of counted cross stitch. One year I charted everyone in the family, their names and stitched them out in various fonts and with different thread counts too. And as some have passed away, they have come back to me and live on in our memories and on our tree each year. This year I made little groupings around them.....these are Jeff's parents and there is a crystal church near their ornament.

Near my Grandpa and Grandma Thedens is a vintage wreath ornament with "Ruth" written on the tag it was saved in her Christmas decorations probably from the Study Club she belonged to in Jesup for many years or maybe a church event. The white angel is one of the many decorations I have on my tree that she made. She made beautiful ceramic and porcelain pieces....a true artist. She also made my nativity that is pictured below.

You can barely see Grandma Mildred's at the top, but the angel ornament and the crocheted bird is tucked behind all made by her and there is a beaded gold and clear star above Grandpa Keith's that is sideways done by her.

Also several of the "Shiny Bright" ornaments are from her and Grandma Ruth too.

The little white crochet basket with the vintage beads was made by my Grandma Mildred and the pink beaded one, I made years ago, probably from a Lee Wards kit. That will date me. 😲

Jeff and I wish you a very Merry Christmas and the best of days in the new year!!!!