As they say in the Commonwealth…
A few days before Christmas we got snow. Snow seems to be happening more regularly in my little corner of the USA, but it is still this weird combo of a surprise, a treat and debilitating nuisance. This round came with bone chilling temperatures that are definitely not common in the Seattle area. The snow was followed by an ice storm! In all of my life Seattle has never had an ice storm. The whole thing made it a real b*tch to finish up last minute Christmas shopping, get groceries and to even take the dogs out for their potty time.
And just as the cold, snow and ice set in my husband went and got appendicitis. 🫤 We headed to the ER at 2am December 22nd. The hospital waiting room looked remarkably empty, but once we got into the ER unit things were cluster.
All 20 rooms were full. So husband was placed on a stretcher in a space that is hard to describe (but here goes nothing).
Imagine 20 hospital rooms lining the outside walls of a LARGE square room. The inside of the square has about 60+ cubicle desks, each with a computer where various hospital employees are working, chatting with one another, answering phones, etc. Bright over head fluorescent lights illuminate the entire space. A ten foot pathway divides the cubicles from the ER rooms. Docs, nurses, janitorial staff and patient families are constantly moving through this pathway. There is random hospital machinery in the path beeping, blinking and clanking. Supplies are being delivered. Soiled sheets, masks and gloves are going into garbage bins in this pathway. There is an automatic double glass door opening and closing that leads outside. This is where all of the ambulance patients are brought into the hospital. So each time the doors open bitterly cold winds blow into the unit…. Well, husband’s stretcher was in this pathway, pressed against a cubicle wall, right next to the double glass doors that went outside! He was there from 2am until 11pm!!!!
I stayed from 2am til 8am. Then came back for a couple hours at lunch. At some stage they made his diagnosis and gave him pain drugs. But there was no bed to had in the hospital. So hubs was just forced to wait. I had words with a couple of hospital employees asking why they couldn’t at least move him away from the outside doors, but it never happened.
His surgery was the morning of the 23rd (ice storm day). So I couldn’t get out of the house to visit him. The 24th he came home at about 1:30pm. Luckily the town had melted.
Christmas Eve was a combo of running errands, prepping food and wrapping presents. Hubs was pretty out of it after the appendix removal. We turned in pretty early to give Santa plenty of time to work his magic.
After Santa gifts I put the final touches on our holiday decor to prepare for our lunch guest. The past couple years I have done kind of a blue coastal Christmas thing. It has a snowflakes meet the ocean vibe.
Our only lunch guest was my almost 98 year old grandmother. Things have been weird since the appearance of covid and my mom’s simultaneous cancer diagnosis. Mom is too sick to leave the house and dad doesn’t leave her side except for errands. This was also grandma’s first return to a holiday meal. She is remarkably with it and independent. She still lives on her own! I did pick her up and bring her over to our house though.
After exchanging gifts with grandma, we sat down to lunch. The menu included roast turkey (I did a breast and a couple legs vs a whole bird), stuffing, a potato casserole situation, green beans and cranberry sauce. To drink we had ginger beer and Riesling. For dessert I served apple pie and homemade rum fudge.
After lunch grandma and I went to my folk’s house. (Hub’s belly was aching too much post appendectomy to join). Our visit with my parents was surprisingly pleasant. Mom generally has a really hard time being out of bed, but yesterday she was pretty perky. We opened gifts and spent about 2 hours visiting.
After seeing the parents, it was time to head home for hubby and pooch time. We always open our gifts to one another Christmas evening.
In addition to family gifts, I also opened a couple of gifts from my Hive Family. I haven’t gotten my Secret Santa gift yet, but I’d did get Christmas treats from my Vegas buddies 
!