Christmas 2006

It was the best of times... It was the worst of times...

This year, I've been in the Christmas spirit since the beginning of December. I've enjoyed each and every card I received from friends and loved ones around the globe. My tree was put up and presents laid beneath waiting for today.

Happily, I loaded up the car to go to my parents house for the Christmas festivities. I jump and and guess what? (For those of you who've been reading my blog for a while, you may presume what happened.) My car wouldn't start! Again, the battery was dead. How many times has this been now? 3? 4? Thankfully, I still had my baby bro's battery charger from the last time this happened. I threw the charger on and called my Dad to tell him I might be late. An hour and a half later, he called to inquire whether I got the car started. At 66% charged, she fired up! Woo Hoo... I'm in business now!

I arrived at my parents house and everyone was already eating. They used the excuse: The kids were hungry. (Those darn kids... They think they deserve food or something!! LOL) The first words out of my mouth were: "Who in here was going to come pick me up if my car didn't start?" I was met with blank looks and then two adults raised their hands. I announced, "The rest of you don't get presents." My little 7yr old niece raises her hand and pipes up, "I woulda come got you!" Awww... Isn't she sweet? Me thinks she just wanted presents. :)

My sister took it upon herself to tell the family I had a date the previous Saturday night. The popular topic of conversation throughout the afternoon/evening was "the guy". They grilled me like a rare steak until I was well done. LOL They all had a grand old time putting me on the spot, and trying to pin me down as to when "the family" was going to meet him.

Being the photographer I am, I took a bunch of pics of my family. They blame me for "taking too long" when I set up the photographs. But, tell me... Does this look like it's MY fault? This is what I have to deal with...

We convinced the teenagers to get their mug shots done too:


And here's all the kids. Aren't they great?

After the festivities concluded at my parent's house, we all headed over to my sister's where we had a party. It's been a long time since the five of us (bros, sis & I and SIL, too) sat around shooting the breeze. Being the lightweight that I am, my SIL told me I only needed two drinks. We were all home in bed by 11pm. We're such party animals. Ahem, yeah.

11:30pm... Cell phone rings. My sister is on the other end. Tells me my Dad was having chest pains and thought he may be having a heart attack. He's had 2 or 3 in the past 8 years. He had my Mom drive him to the hospital 35 minutes from their house. One thing about our family... We may not see each other very often, but we are pretty close. We all showed up at the hospital. Some in PJs, some without socks, some in jeans. After several hours, we were told they didn't think he was having a heart attack but they couldn't get his heart rate leveled. Once they admitted him to ICU, we all went home. I went to bed for the second time at 3am, and got up for work at 7.

I thought I'd go in, do what I had to and go home. Ten hours later, I finally dragged myself home. I was soooooo tired!

My Dad was released earlier tonight, but has to go back on Thur for outpatient surgery. Seems his heart is misfiring which caused the pain and erratic rhythm. The cardiologist wants to freeze part of his heart to disable the mechanism that's misfiring. They said there's a 75-80% chance this procedure will take care of the problem. If he doesn't have it done and he has a reoccurence of what happened last night, there's a good possibility he could suffer a stroke. Hmmm... No choice there!

A side note: While waiting in the ER, I was text messaging the new guy I've been dating. He offered to come and sit with me while I waited to hear about my Dad. I was floored that someone who I've only known for about 3 weeks would do that. I was really touched by the gesture. He indeed did come and sit with me and hold my hand... for 10 minutes, after which we found out we all could go home. I felt bad that he drove all the way across town at 2am to sit with me for 10 minutes. Know what he said? He told me, "I'd rather come and sit with you for 10 minutes than you wanting me to be here and not be here at all." Isn't that the sweetest thing?