The title of this post is the answer to the question that, since I work from my quiet house, I didn’t have get to answer eleventy million times today, How was your holiday?

In my previous post I mentioned my Granddad being ill and how he was admitted to the hospital last week. He actually came home on Thanksgiving Day and it was a huge victory. He still felt weak and sickly, but he was able to take a shower and spend time with family. While we had already committed to spending Thanksgiving with my Father-in-Law and family, I wasn’t able to see Granddad on Thanksgiving. However, on Friday, LFM took Bean and Dan and I headed over to my grandparents’ house, stopping to get some sundry items from the store for them. We had a very nice visit. Granddad looked WORLDS better than he had when I saw him in the hospital. He was animated and telling us stories and spent quite some time going through the mail (mail is big when you’re elderly. Huge, really.). He got up and walked laps around the main floor of their house telling us, “Walkin’s good for me. Keeps the blood movin’.” We agreed. It was so nice to see him up and around.

Apparently Saturday wasn’t a very good day for him. He didn’t feel well enough to eat. He was coughing more often. He didn’t feel like he had made much of an improvement. I later found out from my cousin that while the hospital sent him him with a prescription, they didn’t send the actual medication and my grandmother wasn’t able to get out to pick up the actual prescription. He had been without his meds for 48-hours.

Sunday, my Dad saw him and said that he was feeling better than Saturday, but not great. I called over there last night and spoke to him on the phone. I told him how Lyla cut three teeth over the weekend and how she’d been a drooly, snotty mess. I could hear him smiling over the phone. He liked hearing about her. But that cough of his. That damn cough was still there. And his breathing was labored. I could hear it through his voice.

This morning I found out that he went back to the hospital first thing. After another sleepless night and frustration and fear of just not feeling any better, he actually asked to go. My uncle drove them and my father met them there and when they got into the ER, the staff immediately gave him oxygen. Dad said that he drastically improved. His color returned and he perked up some. They are going to admit him to the hospital again. That’s all the information I have. I don’t know how long he’ll be there. I don’t know if there’s more than just fluid in the lungs to worry about. I don’t know if there’s anything they can do about his lack of nutrition. I just don’t know.

What I do know is that he was home this weekend. For Thanksgiving. He sat in his spot at the head of my Aunt’s Thanksgiving table. I can visualize him there surrounded by people that love him. I’m sorry I wasn’t there, but I’m more grateful for our visit on Friday. Our one-on-one time. Where we could pay attention to each other and no one else. I’m thankful for that.

So really, while all of this completely sucks, the weekend and the holiday were actually quite nice. We had a great Thanksgiving at FIL’s who put on such an amazingly delicious spread, it was almost criminal. Lyla enjoyed playing with her cousins and loved trying some turkey, mashed potatoes, and pumpkin pie. Oh the pie. The PIE! I can’t stop thinking about this pie. Best. Pie. EVER. AND! I was able to get my kid’s hair into two pigtails which is totally a celebratory milestone in case you didn’t know.

Saturday we decorated our tree. Yes! It’s a good old fashioned Griswold family Christmas up in here. Our house is done and I’m sure I’ll be helping Mom with hers this weekend. The living room looks so pretty and I love sitting there with just the tree lights on. It just makes the room glow.

Sunday I went to see New Moon with my girls and it was fabulous. I could NOT stop drooling over Jacob and the fact that he spent 90% of his scenes shirtless totally made the whole movie for me. Edward shmedward. Team Jacob. Even my kid knows how it is:

So even with all the sad news and wonder and waiting, we are keeping on. Because that’s what you do.

And in the famous words of Clark W. Griswold:

“Where do you think you’re going? Nobody’s leaving. Nobody’s walking out on this fun, old-fashioned family Christmas. No, no. We’re all in this together. This is a full-blown, four-alarm holiday emergency here. We’re gonna press on, and we’re gonna have the hap, hap, happiest Christmas since Bing Crosby tap-danced with Danny fucking Kaye. And when Santa squeezes his fat white ass down that chimney tonight, he’s gonna find the jolliest bunch of assholes this side of the nuthouse.”

Amen, Clark. A-men.

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