Day 298 of 365

Christmas was nice.

Stockings full of things from Santa. Thoughtful presents for all. Christmas Cards in the tree. A tasty Christmas meal with my daughter and her boyfriend.

A pleasant after-meal walk in the park by the river. Lots of ducks and geese, a blue heron, and what I think might be a pelican. Who knew I lived so close to such great sights!

Here's hoping you and yours have a great Christmas time with family. Merry Christmas.

Day 297 of 365

The pies are made, the rolls are rising. The To Die For blueberry muffins are ready for tomorrow's traditional muffins and juice breakfast.

Our Christmas Eve tradition will be starting soon. Our daughter will be heading out from work at six this evening, picking up Chinese food on her way for our traditional Christmas Eve dinner. Then we'll be opening up just one present this evening - a book. We'll all sit by the tree in the living room and read tonight.

First thing tomorrow morning we'll see what Santa has brought each of us, then we'll start opening presents.

I'm happy to say the quilt I made for my daughter is wrapped and under the tree. I can't wait to see what she thinks. She loves her cat dearly so I imagine she'll be quite pleased.

Day 296 of 365

The cat got let out of the bag.

With me at work two days this week, then working furiously on my daughter's quilt blocks, us heading to the casino, yesterday being a full day of doctor stuff and last minute grocery shopping, and my daughter coming home for the night, I forgot.

I forgot to hide the blocks I was making for her quilt (Day 294). My repeated insinuations that it was a "girl's quilt" (implying it was for charity) didn't appear to carry much weight with her. I think she knows it's hers because of the kitties in the middle of the blocks. It didn't help that I had texted her last week asking her favorite color (pink).

But she doesn't know the part of the quilt she'll like the most. It won't be revealed to her until she opens the wrapped present on Christmas morning. It isn't quite done so no picture yet, but it better be done by tomorrow!

I already have a picture for today, anyway. My daughter wanted my help making some cookies for her work. A joint mother-daughter baking-decorating session. Good job kiddo.

Day 295 of 365

Be careful what you wish for, you might just get it. I wished for time in December to work on my health. I might want to take that back.

After a nice little jaunt on the casino bus yesterday with my hubby I turned around and had to get some things done today. A letter from the insurance company informed me that my request for benefits has been denied. Again. The second attempt at trying to get approval for the infusion treatments has now failed, requiring yet another call to the rheumatologist's to file the final appeal.

An attempt to try and delay knee replacement surgery for a bit longer cost me a $1,200 big ole shot of synthetic synovial fluid at the orthopedic surgeon's office. A pain in the pocketbook and a big pain in the knee. If this treatment doesn't work another knee replacement will be looming in the very near future.

Now that I'm on this additional arthritis medication that can cause blindness (an anti-malaria drug, actually) I need to have several new eye tests to establish a baseline. An expensive eye doctor appointment added to my day's list of non-Christmas related expenses.

Thank goodness the casino was good to me. The bus ride, not so much. Hours of cramped knees equaled painful knees. I did have something to keep my mind occupied, though. I believe this sign right below the window was an attempt to use symbols to show me how to either open the window or exit the window during an emergency. I spent quite some time trying to figure it out, but gave up.

Here's hoping someone is better at interpreting than I am.

Day 294 of 365

I don't know if it's a mom thing or a Christmas thing or just a me thing, but I didn't budget my time wisely.

I didn't intend to be this far behind on the quilt I'm making for my daughter for Christmas. (Shh, don't tell her. She doesn't know about it.) I would have expected it to have been put together, quilted, and wrapped under the tree by now. And it should have been.

A couple months back, I had an idea of what December would look like. I'm only contracted for so many days at work which meant December would be a slow month with not much work. It turned out to be much, much busier than I expected. Long days, late nights.

I expected December would be a month of crafting, baking, and sewing. I have done crafting with the tutorials and have done several batches of Christmas cookies and breads. My sewing has turned out to be sewing either for the tutorials or the quilts for charity. While I have spent my time crafting, baking, and sewing it unfortunately has not been all that relaxing. It has been at a frantic pace as I either spend cram sessions on the weekends or late nights and early mornings to get it all done. (Who the heck decorates cookies at 5 in the morning? This person right here.)

December was going to be the month where I could relax and regroup. Get my thoughts in order, clear my head. Focus on my writing. Focus on my health.

It hasn't turned out that way. But now that Christmas break has started and Christmas Day is rapidly approaching  I must, must, must get my daughter's quilt done. I have some of the blocks finished, but there are some special blocks I need to work on before the whole thing can be put together.