Post Christmas Eggnog

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. I certainly did. Christmas Eve was spent with the entire family at my mom and dad's home. It was a fun and crazy evening that lasted longer than usual because everyone had someplace else to go either before or after. We all made our little Christmas Eve side trips around the neighborhood and most of us ended up back at mom and dad's. I grew up in that neighborhood so many years ago and still have friends there. I always make sure I visit a select few that I don't get to see very often.
Back at mom's we play cards, we eat, we laugh and catch up we have to allow my brother to be a "Japanese tourist" and play with his digital camera, we eat some more, and we pick on my other brother, (because we can and it is expected). Eventually we open gifts and someone usually gets a new board or card game that we have to play. The Secret Santa gift exchange was a success so we will do that again next year. By the time we all head home, it is usually midnight. My younger brother takes his kids to Midnight Mass and sometimes I go along with him. This year I passed since I wanted to go Christmas Morning to the church near my home. By the time Sara and I got home, we were about ready for our jammies and bed.

I got up early Christmas Morning and made some coffee, took a shower and started preparations for Christmas dinner. I picked up my friend Theresa and her grand- daughter and we went to Mass. When I got home, Sara was up and had started breakfast. Eric and Jessie arrived, we all ate french toast, bacon, fruit, and opened presents. Eric was extremely happy with the Bruins tickets I got him and I think I shocked Sara with the concert tickets. She was very surprised and thanked me again yesterday. Eric and Jessie had to leave around 4 to have dinner with her family and Sara and I watched a movie until her boyfriend Brad arrived from Massachusetts. We sat down for dinner shortly after that and I then gave Brad his gifts. I don't think he was expecting anything, so he was surprised. I didn't spend much, just a few little things I thought he would like. He was especially happy with the slippers. After I bought them, Sara told me that he asked his mother for some slippers so she had to go on the sly and tell her not to get him any because I already had. He apparently was all bummed out Christmas morning because he didn't get any. LOL

Yesterday I went up North to visit my friend Rose. She looks fantastic, although her hair has grown in all curly and unruly, which normally would bug the hell out of her because she likes everything in it's place. However, since recovering from cancer, those things no longer bother her and she is just happy to be alive and to have hair again. I talk to her every week on the phone, but I don't get to see her as often as I would like so it is such a treat to be able to spend an entire afternoon with her. Her husband, Steve, made sure there was a nice fire in the fireplace since he knows how much I enjoy that, and we talked and talked and talked some more. (That's what we always did best anyway) LOL

I did get some bad news right before Christmas. My little Chihuahua has lost his vision. I had been noticing he wasn't as fast on his feet lately and had started bumping into the table legs and misjudged jumping on the sofa. I took him in to the Vet's office on Monday and she did several tests to see if he had detached retina's, which seem to be in tact. It could be degenerative, or caused by some other health problem. She took a blood sample and tested him for all sorts of things. Last night she called to say she didn't find anything directly related to the vision loss, but he does have a low thyroid level. He was also borderline on the cholesterol. His blood pressure was a little high but she didn't feel that was an accurate reading because he normally is a bundle of energy when he is in the office so she would want to be able to check that again when he is calmer. His blood sugar was fine so no diabetes. I have a couple of options, although I am not sure what I will do at this time. I could go to see an opthamologist and perhaps she could find out the exact cause of his blindness. I say perhaps, because there's a possibility that she won't be able to tell me anything more than what I already know. My Vet feels that his vision is gone...that there isn't anything that can be done to get it back or improve it so surgery isn't really an option. However, this happened pretty fast so I am curious as to why. It is possible she will find something regarding his overall health that we can't see with just bloodwork. He's only 8 years old and would be considered middle aged. So he's got a lot of life yet to live. He gets around pretty well, although I won't be moving any of the furniture any time soon.
I will be taking him back in to see Dr Lesley next week to have some more bloodwork done regarding the thyroid issue. He might need to be on meds to keep that corrected but we will know more about that later.
As for now, I will baby him a bit and maybe put some padding on the table legs. My mom had a cat who was partially blind and she managed quite well for several years. Maybe I should get Hunter a seeing eye cat?? :-)

I have the rest of the week off and all of next week too. Today will be the first day I have nothing planned so I plan on doing nothing. I got some books and movies for Christmas so I will have plenty to keep me entertained.

Oh it is snowing again by the way. Nothing much right now but if we get at least 1 inch of snow, we will pass our record for snowfall in December. How freeking exciting! I was just starting to see the doghouse and the picnic table out back.

I think I will make some coffee and kick back on the sofa with the pooch in my lap. I have several books to choose from and today seems like a good day to get some reading done.