Belated Carroll Christmas

This weekend we were finally able to host our annual Christmas get-together, just a little later than normal. (But I'm not complaining! Every day where I am up and about is a gift!)

Because of the unusual circumstances this year, the peanut butter ball factory had to stay open a little later than normal. There was much joy about this development.

This year we had some of the Frosts make it as well, which was a special treat. And more people to open up our stash of Christmas Crackers!

It was a fun day and definitely better late than never!

A Different Holiday

After I made my rapid(ish) recovery, for a little while I toyed with the idea of making the drive to Kentucky after all. Then I saw my physical therapist and she was pretty clear that sitting in a car for sixteen hours would be a colossally bad idea. But, I was just so grateful to not be in pain anymore, and to be able to participate in life, that I tried not to be too discouraged. And so we set our minds to having a different kind of holiday.

On the night of the Winter Solstice Bob and Audrey took a bike ride with Bike Winthrop. 

At the start of the kids' school holiday vacation, Bob lucked out and was given tickets to the Holiday Pops by a client. It was such a fun experience! We had Chinese food (my first time dining out in more than two months!) and then had a table at the Pops where we had wine, hot chocolate and dessert. The music sounded SO beautiful, as were the Christmas decorations.

 On Christmas Eve Eve, we drove around delivering cookies to some of our local friends.

And then on Christmas Eve, we were invited over to Andy and Michelle's for dinner and a Yankee Swap, but first we got to see the Winthrop Firetruck Santa drive by.

On Christmas morning, after much discussion about how early to get up and when to open presents, we saw what Santa brought AND opened up presents in one fell swoop. In other words, Audrey won that argument.  Then we watched multiple Christmas movies and laid about!

I made a beef tenderloin, and tried to replicate my mom's side dishes, but my Seven Layer Salad will never be as good as my mom's!

The day after Christmas, we caught up with the Cahoons and saw the lights at LaSallette. So glad to still be able to have our tradition!

(And by "tradition" I mean checking on the "ripped crotch" gingerbread people to make sure they are still in poor shape but on display.  I am happy to report that they have lived to make us snicker another day!)

And finally, we went to the "Uncanny Valley" (aka the The Enchanted Village at Jordans) to creep ourselves out in a festive way.

We also paid three bucks a pop for an eight second "tube" ride. 

I missed seeing everyone in Kentucky, but we made the best of it!

Christmas Show

After what felt like an interminable period of laying flat, my ability to get back to "normal" felt like it happened overnight. I got in to see a specialist for a back injection on December 7th and it didn't seem to be working...but then I bent over funny to pick up a dropped towel, spent an hour having crazy back spasms and then like magic things started to improve after that. *deep sigh of relief*

The timing was very lucky... just in time to be able to see Audrey's Christmas recital! And as a special bonus, Grandma had come to visit since to celebrate an early Christmas with us since we likely can't go to Kentucky this year. So Grandma got to see her first WSPA Christmas show...TWICE! 

And then helped us get ready for the holidays by making some peanut butter balls.

And we exchanged gifts.

Including a really special painting for Grandma, painted from one of our Italy photos.

And then Grandma made us a nice Christmas dinner.

I'm so grateful to be up and about again! I know this Christmas won't be "normal" but I'll take what I can get!

A Lost Autumn...

So fall 2023 will go down in history as definitely NOT MY FAVORITE. My sciatic pain returned after our trip to NYC and I kept waiting for it to abate, but instead it just got worse and worse and worse. Doctors were unhelpful, I wasn't even able to see a specialist for six or so weeks, and there was no medication that alleviated the pain. I spent about eight weeks unable to sit or stand for more than a minute or two at a time. Life went on, and things happened but for the most part, we were in survival mode, with Bob having to do literally everything for all of us while I watched lots of TV, read and played Tetris on my phone. It was definitely one of the most difficult times we've experienced. But there were some highlights.

Maddy's drama class wrote a script for kid's play and then performed it at the elementary school.

This year's high school musical production was Freaky Friday and this year Maddy was Prop Master. She even put me to work making frogs out of clay (because I could do that laying flat), which was awesome as I was feeling pretty useless! And luckily there was a video of the production, so I could watch it eventually. So proud of all Maddy's hard work on the play!

For "Dynamic Duo" day at the Middle School so Audrey and her friend (in a stroke of genius in my opinion!) went as Jack and Rose from Titanic.

A low point in all of this drama was Thanksgiving when I spent the day on my own, cutting up Hermione's anxiety medication in halves because the pet store sent the wrong dose THREE TIMES. (Oh yeah, in the middle of all my medical drama, Hermione started losing her hair, because when it rains it pours!) I was grateful that  Bob got me Thai food to have while they were gone, and they did text me entertaining photos of their day. 

Later on Thanksgiving weekend Audrey participated in the Town Tree Lighting ceremony with her hip hop class. Bob and Maddy were at liberty to goof off!

Of all the tasks that Bob took over from me, I think he enjoyed doing the bulk of the Christmas shopping the most. He took the kids out multiple times, trying to instill in them his love of the mall.

After a few years of real trees we made the decision to pull out our old fake tree this year for simplicity's sake.

I supervised from my home on the ottoman. 

WSPA is putting on their Christmas show this year, and the local nursing home got a sneak peak.

(My view for much of my down time, laying on the ottoman.)

Even as miserable as I was, I still had a lot to be grateful for. Bob and the girls took really good care of me, and my mom-network in town helped SO much as well, giving the kids rides to places and taking photos and videos of events I was missing. As bad as it was, it could have been so much worse!

Fall Soccer

Let's just say that this soccer season was character building. Seven losses, one tie....and a coaching red card thrown in there for good measure!

Halloween

 

Unfortunately, I've been down with my back since our trip to NYC. BUT, Halloween must go on. Luckily, Audrey could still go out with her friends (And Bob caught up with her after he got home from work)

And Maddy and I watched The Exorcist at home. All things considered, it was a fun night.

Anniversary Weekend

Thanks to mom, coming up to watch the kids, Bob and I took a weekend away in NYC to celebrate our 20th anniversary. 

We took the train on Friday afternoon, had dinner at a really good Israeli restaurant....though the dessert was something we'd never experienced before!

Then we saw Trevor Noah at the Beacon Theater. Such a good show!

Saturday, we had zero plans so Bob got free tickets to see a jazz competition just to have an opportunity to see the new Perelman Center for the Arts which was really cool (especially on a really rainy day)! It was down near the 9/11 Memorial so we go to see that too.

Then on a whim, we got tickets to Back to the Future the Musical which was really fun. I only regret that the kids couldn't see it with us because they would have LOVED it!

 It was a really nice weekend.