Monday, December 27, 2010

Unexpected Christmas 2010

This weekend we went to Wisconsin to visit Husband's family. We got there Dec 23, had a lovely time at the neighborhood dinner. It's a very nice tradition 4 families on the street have. The different courses of the meal are spread across the different homes.

What's interesting is that there are 3 generations now. Mother-in-law talked about "the young people" and I kept asking her if she meant the middle generation or the youngest generation. She meant the middle generation.

And speaking of M-i-l, on Xmas eve, we were to drive 90 minutes away to visit her sisters and relatives. But 20 minutes into the drive, she asked us to turn around and take her to the emergency room. She was dizzy, sweating, hyperventilating.

We got to the ER and she was so dizzy she fell back into the car when she tried to stand. They took her in a wheelchair and it turns out that she had irregular heartbeat. She was quickly stabilized, but since she went in on a Friday, the doctors wanted to keep her in the hospital until Monday and run some more tests.

On Xmas, we visited her in the morning and then again at 8pm. We brought her a plate of xmas dinner and a bottle of whiskey. She couldn't drink any of the whiskey of course, so we did so for her.

A family friend is a doctor and he came with, so that was nice.

We left Dec 26 and didn't have time to visit her before leaving. But our xmas gift to her was to buy her a ticket to visit us in the spring.

The silver lining, for me, was the fact that I got to spend more time with my sister in law (Husband's brother's wife). On Dec 24 evening, while M-i-l was first taken into the hospital and stabilized, Brother-in-law took his wife and me back to m-i-l's house to wait it out. We played gin rummy, ate leftovers, and generally just hung out.

I don't think that in the 18 years we've known each other, that we've really talked and spent time together. We don't really have that much in common and I don't think we'll ever be best buds, but it was very nice to get to know her better.

And tomorrow's her birthday and now I know what to get her: a real purse. Tomboy or not, I think a 39 year old woman needs a real purse. And there are lots of sporty ones available.

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