Happy Advent

My favorite time of the year. We are getting ready for Christmas and there is so much tradition and so many memories. And you know that we both find happiness in the simplest things. 

As you can see, James felt much better after his (thankfully short) hospital stay. But we are making fun of him: two years ago we spent Christmas in a hospital, this year it was Thanksgiving Holiday. 

First Sunday of Advent was November 30. Time to start decorating. We started Saturday with the Chrismon tree. James was a big help. In years passed he was always the one to assemble the "fake" trees and put the lights on. So he did it again.

I wished you could see it in  person. All the christian symbols are such a joy.

There was a reason that this tree had to be up. I had scheduled the yearly Chrismon lesson for church members who wanted to learn for Sunday. Because there were only 4 "students" and they lived convenient close to me, we agreed to change location for the lesson. This year for the first time we did it at our house instead the church. Our friends enjoyed seeing our tree. As always, the large ornament each one had made was for the church tree and they got a small one for their home tree. 

Since we were supposed to be on our trip in Europe (got cancelled, see previous blog) we ate more out than usual. Got to have fun! 

Thursday 12/4 we found a new to us restaurant "Con Salsa Venezuelan Cuisine" on Mountain Road. Only 8 minutes by car. It is known as a food truck place but we were in a freshly built simple room which was very nice. The food was very delishes but what we had ordered was quite messy to eat. Next time we will order the bowls. Yes, we will definitely eat there again.

And the pre-christmas decorating continued. I found two matching vases in the right size in a shrift store cheaply which is great. And I had not even looked for them but was just accompanian a friend. The fresh greenery branches always made my crystal vases messy and difficult to clean. 

James is very good unwrapping the nativities. These hand-whittled wooden figures were made for me in East Germany when it was still under communistic rule. So many memories.

On the mantle on the other side of the fireplace is the Mexican nativity every year. We have to be careful. Those figures are very breakable. We are always guessing because it is not that clear to us which figure is which character in the story.

The second tree up and decorated is what we call our "German tree". Pretty much all the ornaments are made from stroh. That's what we would do as children in Germany every year ... make stroh stars. Confession: most of these are actually from IKEA, some we even bought in Singapore (which had two IKEA places on that little island) when we lived there. But there is a stroh pig which we had found in Prag...

... and this new one in the middle we had bought on our Christmas Market trip last year. It is actually made with wooden shavings and pictures Kurrende singers in the middle (or Sternesinger). 

In the evening Caleb had his first band concert. James and I did not go but received photos and videos from Sarah. Needless to say we regretted not having gone ourselves. I guess our age is acting up.

Next day (Friday 12/5) the first real snow of the season. Looks pretty but it is hampering plans.

A little late we decided to use the advent calendar puzzle again which Helen had gifted to us 2 years ago. We had to catch up a few days but James was eager. We started on the dining room table but that was not comfortable for him. His back didn't like it. So we tried different ways.

Saturday the 6th we had signed up for the church wine club event. This time it included a painting lesson. I had suggested to James to try it and he had reluctantly agreed. He did actually very well and may be even enjoyed it. 

The "puzzle situation" is quite comfortable now. No more complains. Having its own place is good so one can work on it for a little while here and there.

And just when the snow had thawed away we got another dose. But even when we have not all "that white" it is so sooooooo cold lately. 

At the time of this writing the snow is gone again, it is still very very cold but there is promise of it getting warmer again at the end of this week. Yeah!

The story of E.T.

This is what Jillian, a nurse at St. Mary's Hospital, called James. 

But lets start in the beginning. Wednesday Noember 26 ... it was also a Wednesday when 50 years ago James and I got married at City Hall in Manhattan. I know I should write a blog about that if our family after us will be interested about it at one point. 1975 was one gigantic adventure. 

So, this year we went to the 10 am service which Fr Lee had named our churches one Thanksgiving service. There were not that many of our parishioners but we had a potluck meal afterwards and it was good fun. Friends Martha and Jerry came afterwards to the house and we popped a bottle of "Schloß Biebrich Sekt" to celebrate the Golden Wedding day. James and I felt blessed all our lives together but especially this day.

Thomas, another friend from church, came by later and James started feeling poorly. The short waves of dizziness happened again like months before and I was sure it was because he was dehydrated. We had not been good the last few days about water intake.

When I checked his blood pressure later we got a bad surprise. Way to high. Time to go to the ER. Sarah recommended St. Mary's. An Emergency Room is not very fancy but the nurses were so nice. James was cold and so was I and they brought us hot blankets when we needed them. 

Sarah had to work all day at the old shop location and her husband and boys had already gone ahead to his parents for the Thanksgiving celebration on the next day. She offered to come but we were well taken care off and she needed some rest too. We expected her to follow her family the next morning in the second car. 

Later in the night the ER people decided that it would take more work to get his bloodpressure under control and he was admitted. They found a room for him and I staid and tried to sleep in the chair.

Thursday. Thanksgiving Day. Sarah decided not to make that 3.5 hour drive (one way) but give us support. When she was there I went quickly home to get some things for James and have a quick shower. Late afternoon James saw a tiny rainbow in the sky which topped later with a lovely sundown.

Friday. James felt much better and so looked the readings on those machines he was attached to.

His "hospitalist" (hospital department doctor) was great. Concerned, attentive, caring. When he came after lunch James' vital numbers were good. The nurse had to take him for a walk which he enjoyed. He past the test.

And when she disconnected him from those machines, that's when she called him E.T. The glowing red fingertip (for H2O readings). 

Friday evenening we were happy to be home. Grateful. And grateful to Sarah for the support. And of course we felt Helen's concern too. But all ended well. Saturday and Sunday I could tell that James felt much better than in a long time. I felt this all was confirmation that cancelling the trip had been the right decision. And as always we still have fun, talking, discussing, playing cards, doing certain jobs, etc etc.

I must say I preferred the excitement 50 years ago to the one this year. 

These and that of daily life

Back home from our road trip for a month now and not much to report. 

Yes, it is rare that we have a breakfast like that, but we were given eggs from William and Ben's hens and had brought them home. That is always special. But nobody really to play "the silly game" with. We did sent William photos of it though.

Helping Sarah out ... and Owen. He had a huge bag fill of coins from his birthday. Banks don't have coin counting machines any more. Could we ...? The bank gave us those paper rolls. What else do grandparents have to do?

Oh yes. We believe in immunizations. October 28. Flu and covid shot!

Sarah used to do Papa's hair but the poor girl is so busy with her family and working full time. She is always willing but we hate to ask. Got our own tools and #4. I actually had fun doing it. Made my husband happy.

November 4 was election day and there was not school. We helped out with the kids (picking the twins up from a baseball camp) and when we brought them to there house Stella was happy to see Papa. It is such a cute photo.

This year we had a really lovely autumn. Blue skies and sunshine and beautiful colorful leaves. Our camellias were blooming too for an incredibly long time. 

Our community has a nice selection of trees in all different autumn colors. You can see a bit when I took a photo of the little Jesus figure we found on the parking lot when we took our turn for the Meals-on-wheels delivery. 

And other things keep us busy. Our church has a once a month wine club outing. November we went to the New Kent Winery.

I was leading the church ladies (ECW) in a craft day to make items for a bazaar we had signed up for. It was quite successful. And fun!

And of course there are doctors appointments. Another routine visit for James to the dermatologist but yeah (!) he got another "clear" report. But I loved seeing this at the reception. The sign said "Enhanced Patient Care" (with a large bowl of halloween candy in front of it). I didn't read the fine print!

And the season has started! Shopping!

Chocolate Elf on the Shelf!

What kind of Advent calendar is this? 12 days?

Hot Sauce

Oh yes. And here is more. I do not like shopping ... except for food because it is easy for me to make decisions for that. 

But we had to shop for a dishwasher. We heard noice which was not supposed to be there. And we figured that it was the original from when the house was built in 2006. Do we bother to get it repaired? Do we get a new one? We got a new one. 

We were lucky that our plumber had time to install it. He is good. And we were told by the salesperson in the shop not to trust the delivery men with this job. I had to take this photo of Mike the Plumber. 

This generally sounds all ok but unfortunately I also have to report that my dear husband was in terrible pain, probably coming from his spine and running down his left leg all the way to his foot. He had seen Ortho doctors and had PT sessions for quite a while but they didn't seem to help and may be even make it worse. Hard to tell. We were supposed to travel starting November 17 on a wonderful trip we had so looked forward to. We decided to cancel it and concentrate on finding a doctor to figure this out. 

We are over the initial feeling sorry for ourselves and having to do all the cancellations and dealing with reembursements etc. It was the right decision and as my mother always used to say: "Wer weiß wofũr es gut ist?" (You never know what it is good for). 

Of course there are the little things you see the greatness of our God in. 

Here some photos from our garden ... taken today! Pictures taken of the 2 autumn/winter camellias earlier in this blog. They actually started in the beginning of October and are still going strong. Our 3 winter/spring camellias are loaded with fat buds. Something to look forward to.

Still some roses blooming.

And my Christmas cactus who starts to bloom whenever in the year I remember to water it.