Xmas stuff and sick.

[professionalhenchman]

Christmas with my family was much fun - it's reare that all three of us kids are home at once. Much of the holiday was spent playing Ninja Burger, though we got in a family game of Parcheesi. I've missed playing that gane, though I didn't realize it - Grandpa Swope used to organize a game of it most nights when we were visiting them growing up. It still reminds me of him. Cribbage does the same for my other grandpa - that was the game most played among the Williams family. I remember getting to where Dad and I were pretty evenly matched, but unless I got lucky, I couldn't beat Grandpa. Ahh, the memories that sneak up on you.

Grandma Swope is steadily deteriorating - she has Alzhemer's, and since Thanksgiving, has become even less focused, and developed an obsessive habit of scraping at the tablecloth with a spoon, even if there's nothing there. It's sad, and st times it's hard to reconcile this person with the grandma I grew up knowing. Occasionally she has more lucid moments, and you can see her old self, particularly in her smile, but they're few and far between. I hope that I end up taking after my great-aunt Mercedes, who at 90something lives mostly on her own, and is still sharp as a tack. She's even got a better command of the internet than my mom (though that's not hard - I love my mom, but she's not particularly technologically inclined.)

Gift giving was fairly low-key, as it has been ever since my brother Loren decided to protest the commercialism of the holiday by refusing to give or recieve gifts. Mind you, he still gets something minor from me just to harass him every year, but that's only because it's my job as the older brother. This year it was a bag of chocolate balls labeled "Snowman droppings." I'm actually proud of him for taking a stand like that, though I'm not sure I want to give him a larger swelled head than he has already. :) (Yes, I know you occasionally read my LJ, Loren) The photos of Kay and I were well recieved by family, and I have a couple of requests from them for wallets of some of the pictures - we're going to have to order a couple more sheets of those poses anyway.

Today, I'm home from work sick - I woke up at 4am with a mild fever (100.2F), and didn't manage to sleep more than fitfully after that until the fever broke at 8:45ish. I figured that my co-workers wouldn't appreciate my coming in and infecting all of them. I seem to be getting better, and am having lots of liquids & soup. I'm hoping to be well by tomorrow, or at least Thurs., as I have way too much to do ths weekend.

Comments

Moving that direction

[satyrlovesong.livejournal.com]

I'm working on getting rid of the gross commercialism here too. Every year I manage to scale back a little more, sort of weaning the family off the conspicuous consumption craze. I think it will take about ten more years to finally kick the habit, but I'm working on it.