Christmas

I know that in my last post I stated that there would be more pictures from Christmas past but we took a break so we could be with family and get busy baking and making all kinds of goodies. 

As everyone has been reading you know that I have not been in very good spirits, feeling over whelmed and just having a hard time dealing with things. Well, there are still things to be down about but in knowing and understanding that Christmas is really about the birth of Christ how could I continue to feel this way?  I know that not everyone has the same belief system but for me (I can only speak for myself) all the celebrating during this time is like one huge birthday party. When I was young my mom really tried making sure that we understood that Christmas was more than presents, its a celebration of new life. (I remember her baking a special birthday cake, it was tiered iced with green icing sprinkled with coconut and topped with an angel. We set it next to the manger and sang happy birthday and someone would blow out the candle! I have a picture some where and will post when I find it.) This new life gave us the most ultimate presents: hope,love and everlasting life! What does all this have to do with what we are dealing with? Just think about it, we will always have hope, hope that some day doctors will understand what goes on in the brain to cause Alzheimer's and find a cure. This cure may not occur in our life time but its still there and we have the hope that the medication that Dave is on will slow down his symptoms. We have love, the love from Christ that is shown through so many people. What blessings we have received this holiday season!! God laid it on so many hearts of family and friends to reach out and give of themselves in so many ways, that is the love of Christ shining through! And then there is everlasting life, as a believer I have everlasting life because I believe in Him and celebrate His birth and all that he has given us. 


This year things were different. Gabriella was the driver for herself and Dave when they went shopping and she experienced some of Dave's forgetfulness. She told me how Dave was able to give her directions to the places they were going to but then forgot the name Walmart. She said she finally figured out which store he was talking about after giving her all kinds of descriptions. She thought it was weird how he knew the directions but forgot the name of a store we frequent. The rest of the shopping was uneventful! But it only took one little incident to remind us about how he forgets so we look at the positive instead-he was able to tell her how to get places which can be hard since we are still missing some of our street signs and land marks but he remembered! 

Michelle, Autumn, Dave, Isabelle, Adam

We celebrated on Christmas Eve with Adam, Michelle, Autumn and baby Izzy here with us. It was so much fun! I had made  breakfast casserole since it was more of a brunch time, had fruit, banana bread and cinnamon bread. Michelle brought us some yummy gingerbread! There was so much more than that so we munched all morning on all kinds of stuff! It was different for me to celebrate so early in the day but I had so much fun! It was fun seeing Dave with his granddaughters. A couple of really sweet memories for me were 1- Michelle brought some jigsaw puzzles that her grandmother would put together. Her grandmother had Alzheimer's and started doing the puzzles in her early stages, this kept her mind busy and thinking and would keep her busy through the day. How sweet for Michelle to share that with us!! 2-A conversation Autumn and Michelle had: Autumn-When are we going to Joplin: Michelle-We are in Joplin. Autumn-No we're not! Michelle-Yes, we are in Joplin. Autumn-No we're not! Michelle-We're not? Then where are we? Autumn-We're at grandpa's house!! How cute was that!! Oh yeah, Michelle also gave us jars of her canned pickles!! I made sure to take out some pulled pork from the freezer so tomorrow we can have a bbq sandwich with some of her pickles, can't wait to open those babies up!!

Becee, Stephanie, Matthew, Dave, Me with Seeley, Gabriella

Later in the evening we went to Matthew and Becee's! Matthew made us a delicious dinner! He has always been a good cook! Mmmm garlic mashed potatoes! It was fun with Seeley now walking and being his cute silly self! We posed for pictures, opened gifts and played a new game Stephanie bought. It was so much fun and Dave had no problems playing a word game!  The sweetest memory was watching how much Matthew and Becee were enjoying their first Christmas with Seeley! They are such good parents and they have so much fun you can't help but smile and laugh!! Seeley is such a sweet heart. He was so tired but so good natured about everything that was going on. What a blessing he is to us!


Christmas morning was our time. Sorry no pictures, we aren't too keen on pictures of us in our pajamas! We had such a hard time finding things to buy Dave this year. Funny how this diagnosis has even changed our idea of presents. We were looking for things that would be more of the artistic type, something that would work the "other" side of his brain to keep him thinking and figuring. We opted for paints, a wood bird feeder that he could paint and a preprinted canvas painting, not quiet a paint by numbers kit but something that he could paint. It was hard finding him a painting kit, he looked at them before but found the task of mixing the paints for shading a little difficult to comprehend so we had to skip those kits and the only thing left were little kids stuff. I did find this other kit not sure what its called but it was more of Dave's style of painting and not kiddish at all!  Dave seemed pleased with his gifts and looking forward to trying his hand at painting again!

Kaden, London, Dustin, Brittney, Dave

Later in the afternoon we went out to see Dustin, Brittney, London, Kaden, and sweet baby girl. I am so grateful that we had nice weather, it made the trip pleasant and not so scary ( I hate driving long distances in bad weather).  We had fun watching London play with his new Kinect, all the moving and shaking he did, how funny!! Dustin gave us a tour of the fire station where he and Adam are volunteer firefighters! Unfortunately our visit was short, mainly because I got us lost! We chose to visit early and leave before the party started. Dave has noticed that he can communicate better in a quiet more structured gathering. His thoughts come easier and he forgets less. Even Michelle stated how good Dave did with their time with them. A relief for all the kids as they are having trouble dealing with Dave's diagnosis.


So that's it! That was our Christmas. We had fun with each of the kids. What a year this has been! I think for me Christmas came at the right time. It reminded me of the hope and love that was born and given to us. Hope and love that will carry us through our journey. 

Monica