Em says it all here. HO HUM!

That's how I feel about Christmas etc. Just another day here for us, except that this year our Mother (Paul's mother, my mother-in-law) broke her hip and is in hospital for the holiday. How fun is that?

However, she seems to be doing well only two days out from her hip replacement surgery, I'm happy to report. When I spoke with her on the phone this morning she sounded almost chipper, if you can believe that. As I said before, she is 87 (at least she keeps telling us she's 87 - I have the sneaking suspicion maybe she is 86 going ON 87 - but I can't be sure without looking it up. Maybe she is 87 - yeah. Anyway, to be 87 and sound chipper two days after having your hip replaced says something!

I don't know if I've said it here or in my other sites before, but I definitely lucked out in the mother-in-law department when I married Paul. Actually, in the father-in-law department as well. They are both still alive at 87 and have always been super friends. I feel like their daughter, since I don't have any parents of my own anymore, and from the very beginning, they've made me feel like their own daughter, too.

Now for rehab.

We have some plans in the works and maybe when Paul gets home from visiting her in the hospital today, I'll know more about what they are. There is a rehab facility in the assisted/independent living place where they normally live, so that should prove very beneficial.

I think we'll just put off Christmas until after she is better and is up and walking and "taking medicine," as my father used to say.

This picture was taken a few years ago, and a couple of dogs ago, but aren't they just the cutest family you ever saw? Paul, his Mom, sharing the sofa with Jazzy, and his Dad looking on? I must have done something right to deserve them in my life. But did you notice who's got the majority of the space on the sofa?

We still have a ton of snow outside, but thanks to a diligent husband, ours is all shoveled out to the street and easily passable. I saw on the news some neighborhoods where no one ever came to plow them out, and they had pregnant mothers and old folks outside shoveling snow from the street they lived on just to be able to go to work and get out. Now that's not right. We have always been lucky with our snow-plowing people around here. In fact, I think that one of the guys who plows for the City lives right in our neighborhood, up the street, so we are usually first to be plowed out. That's a good thing, too, because we are at top of two giant hills and getting off those hills in bad weather could be dangerous if not for the snow plows and the sanding/salting situation.

I always tell people who are looking to buy a home to stay away from the edge of the ocean, and to buy a house at the top of a hill because you will never fall into the ocean, as so many homes are doing lately on the coasts, and you will never be flooded out.

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday and come out of it in one piece on the other end. I think my favorite day of the year has to be the day AFTER Christmas because it's smooth sailing for 364 days after that.

Cheers and Good Tidings,

Bex & Co.