Haul Out the Holly...

"We Need a Little Christmas" seems especially appropriate for 2020! The holidays have been very bittersweet for me this year. I have found it hard to really enjoy all of the usual joys of the season while Lee continues to be in the ICU, constantly struggling to breathe. But...the sun comes up every morning, and life goes on, and I have so much to be grateful for, so I did my best to join my family and friends in making the most of this Covid-19 Christmas. The Covid-19 pandemic shut down or altered all of the traditional events -- there was no Nutcracker ballet performance, socially-distanced concerts, no school programs, and limited holiday shopping. However, there were lots of outdoor Christmas lights and we had fun piling in the Mule and driving thru the neighborhoods. It was great fun for the Thundering Herd, a most unique and eclectic groups of friends, to come together for lunch, gifts, and catching up on each other's adventures. Minus our running clothes and pounding the pavement, we still laughed, cried, and solved the world's problems!

Lee and I had dreamed of a 50th wedding anniversary celebration with all of our family at Sigh-Bar in Montana. That celebration will have to wait. I was agonizing that we would not be able to share even a small moment together in celebration of this milestone anniversary, but I didn't know that the kids had made an impassioned plea for help to the director of the ICU. As a result, I was granted one hour to visit with Lee in the hospital in person. It was a very tender and emotional hour for me to be able to hold his hand and reminisce on our 50 years of life together. We have great kids, who also gave me a beautiful gold infinity necklace on behalf of their dad, and an awesome electronic photoframe that they can send photos/videos directly for us to enjoy immediately. The Cosbys joined me for an anniversary dinner at Craft Grill, and we topped the evening off with chocolate peppermint bundtini cakes.

Tara was able to come and spend the holidays in Houston, and with the Cosbys we put on our masks and made the most of this covid Christmas. We took several rides in the Mule, sometimes at night to look at the lights and sometimes just to go for sodas and treats at the 7-11, we took Bonnie on a walk every day, we went to Market Street to see Santa and have lunch, we puzzled and watched holiday movies, we enjoyed the hot tub and sitting by the firepit, we went shopping and worked on Christmas crafts, we spent one day baking all kinds of Christmas cookies and made all kinds of snacks and dinner menus.

We were blessed with a Christmas miracle on December 22nd when, with some adjustments to his medications, Lee was finally able to become alert and responsive! What a thrill to all join in a zoom call with him and know that he could hear and see us. A tender mercy that we can now communicate with him, share our love and encouragement, and hopefully give him strength and courage to continue to recover.

I am so thankful for the amazing technology that makes it possible for our family to share time together from our homes in three different time zones! We "zoomed" our traditional BINGO game on Christmas Eve, were able to check out what Santa had delivered to all of the kids, and got to see the gifts we had all shared with each other. In spite of the miles between us, Christmas 2020 was an exciting day of giving and sharing. We all hooked up again via zoom on the 29th to help Lee celebrate his 74th birthday. It was a tender mercy to all be able to sing "Happy Birthday" to him, and share some sweet moments with him.

Last New Year's Eve I was excited to look forward to a new decade, but 2020 proved to be a life-changing year of so many challenges. Lee constantly battled one health crisis after another until, after 12+ years of fighting liver disease, he received the wonderful blessing of a new liver and we were overwhelmed with joy and hope in the future. But...the world faced an unprecedented flu pandemic and life as we know it was turned upside down. In spite of following rigid precautions and restrictions, Lee was exposed to the covid-19 flu virus while in the hospital and spent the last 80 days of 2020 in the ICU on a ventilator fighting to breathe. We made our traditional spread of New Year snacks and treats, and were happy to kiss 2020 good-bye and toast to better days ahead in 2021!!

#GiveThanks

Lee remained in ICU at Houston Methodist Hospital the entire month of November, so I tried very hard to focus on the many blessings we have to be thankful for. On November 7th he was moved out of isolation from the Covid-19 ICU to the Liver Transplant ICU and I was finally able to visit him for a couple of hours each day. Although he remains sedated and unresponsive, it was such a blessing for me to be able to hold his hand and feel close to him. Doctors performed tracheostomy surgery on November 13th to place the entry of the ventilator into Lee's throat and remove the intubation tube. The goal now is to help him wake up and see if he can breathe on his own. Unfortunately, he has not been stable enough yet to sustain himself without sedation, so they are very slowly weaning the sedation. In anticipation of a surge in Covid-19 cases after the holiday, the day after Thanksgiving the hospital again closed the doors to any visitors, so I am back to living in the nightmare of being unable to be with him at all.

We decided to postpone our traditional Thanksgiving dinner until Lee is home and can enjoy it with us, whenever that turns out to be, but we enjoyed a scaled down version with some of our favorite dishes. Tara was able to come over and spend the entire Thanksgiving week, so we had time for lots of holiday activities. Tara and I got up early on Black Friday to hit the super sales, and were 100% successful in snatching up the items we were shopping for. One evening all of us lined up on the kitchen island with our own canvas and followed a Cinnamon Cooney tutorial to paint a Christmas scene. It was so fun to see that each painting was unique even though we all followed the same instructions!

November 30th is the birthday of our oldest grandchild, Max, and this year he celebrated the exciting 16th benchmark birthday. Max is such a special young man. He is super smart, very talented, and a friend to everyone. He has a tender heart, and is incredibly loving and kind. He is a devoted athlete, a Jr. Olympic swimmer, and now a licensed driver! It is a great blessing to be his grandparents, and we love him so much.

October Birthdays

We started celebrating October birthdays right away with Ruby on October 5th. She was so excited to finally have her turn to have a birthday party and turn three years old. Ruby is the family's baby and we all are loving watching her learn and grow. She is a very happy little girl, almost always smiling, and so thrilled to be included in anything Leo and June are doing. She loves her gymnastics class, playing outside, and chatting with anyone/everyone. She is obsessed with riding her plasma car, doing puzzles, and animals. She keeps us all giggling with the cute things she says, and her creative dance movements. Thanks to modern technology we can see her darling expressions and hear her cute little voice. She brings such joy to our family.

Lee spent a couple of weeks back in the hospital clearing up two infections, one in his bladder and another in his bloodstream due to the dialysis catheter in his chest. They removed the dialysis catheter and over the two weeks his kidneys were able to sustain an acceptable level so that he was able to discontinue dialysis. He was finally discharged from the hospital on October 8th, just in time for Tara to come over and celebrate her birthday weekend with us. We made a birthday celebration out of every meal, including yummy takeout from Russo's, and put her birthday candle in a create-your-own brownie sundae! Tara brings a celebration with her every time she comes to visit. She is generous to a fault, and is always anxious to share gifts with everyone. She definitely lives up to her nickname, "Sparkle," and always adds some sparkle everywhere she goes.

The day after Lee was discharged from the hospital he had to go for a covid-19 test in preparation for a bladder stone procedure coming up. The test came back "abnormal" which was considered positive, and left no doubt that he was exposed to the virus while in the hospital the previous two weeks. He didn't exhibit symptoms of corona for a couple of days, but eventually spiked a fever and had to be admitted to the covid unit at Methodist Hospital downtown, where he was isolated. His symptoms continued to get worse over the next couple of days and he was admitted to the covid ICU on October 16th. His lungs filled with fluid, and the virus raged on and he finally gave consent to be intubated and put on a ventilator on the 24th. So, since then he has been sedated and tied down, and continues to fight for his life.

Recovery

We spent the entire month of September focusing on Lee's recovery. He had dialysis twice a week, lab visits, virtual and in-person doctor appointments, and Home Health nursing and occupational therapy visits, so the calendar was full. Lee did have time, however, to find and order another set of wheels for the garage! He had a new Kawasaki Mule delivered, and we are all excited to make our neighborhood trips in our new "Fillee."

Celebrating and Recovery

 We started August off with a couple of family birthday celebrations back-to-back, Amy's on the 2nd and Chris' on the 4th. Then, on the 11th we continued our tradition to launch birthday balloons to Grandma Joan. This year we also had another reason to celebrate on the 11th -- after 60 days in the hospital, Lee was finally released to come home! Leading up to his release, I had a couple of days of training in how to care for his medical needs, physical therapy, and administering a plethora of prescription medications. The kids decorated the yard with everything green, and our neighbors, Zach and Megan Campbell, showed up with 150 green helium balloons! It was a blazing hot, breezy afternoon but such a glorious "welcome home" for Lee when we drove up the street lined with family and friends and green balloons.

Recovery from a liver transplant is a long, slow recovery, so Lee will spend the next year conditioning his body to accept a new liver and regaining his strength. His first few weeks at home were full of lab tests, medical appointments, dialysis, Home Health visits, and the daily struggle to adjust to a new "normal." It is a full-time commitment for him and our family, and he also has the love and support of his extended family and many friends.

We had one more reason to celebrate in August -- our darling little June turned 6 years old on the 18th! I was so sad to miss having a "birthday date" with her, but we're going to save that for another time when we can be actually be together. It is impossible not to love June!! She is always smiling and has such a friendly personality. She loves to talk to anyone/everyone! She tries very hard to keep up with her brother, Leo, and is the best big sister to Ruby. Junie loves sweets like her grandma, likes to ride her bike, loves gymnastics, and is a friend to everyone. She is very smart, athletic, kind, and quite petite, but does not like dogs. I never think about June without giggling.