Merry Christmas

So in case you hadn't noticed, yesterday was Christmas. Since I said my next post wouldn't be a downer, this is the perfect time to give that a shot. As is the case with most, I am super happy that the season is winding down, and this one is one I'm even more grateful to see the tail end of. There was some things that were good, some that were bad and of course there were some gifts.


Let's get the bad out of the way first. My Grandmother almost died this month. She was in the ICU for most of the month of December. We are very fortunate she is still with us, and even managed to get out of the hospital and in to a rehab facility on 12/23 so didn't have to be in a hospital for Christmas. Having done that myself (both as patient and as a spouse) I can tell you that Christmas in the hospital sucks big time. Really glad she didn't have to go through that again.

On the good side, my Aunt Sandi was in town, also for most of December. She flew up for our annual Christmas celebration and was here when Grandma got sick. She didn't leave until Christmas eve when she knew Grandma was on the mend and this wasn't going to be her last go around. I know I speak for the entire family when I say I'm glad she was here when the worst parts happened, and was able to stay through and make sure that Grandma got out OK.

As it is with most Christmas' we also got to spend a great deal of time with our families and that was just plain awesome. I really need to make more of an effort to do that over the next year, especially since this next year could be our last full one in Oregon.

Oh and then there were gifts. I'm a huge fan of giving gifts, I always try to find that perfect gift for everyone I'm getting one for. This year I kinda sucked, what with Grandma and all, but I think I managed to nail a couple of em pretty good. My crowning achievement would have to be the gift I got my wife, some pretty awesome tickets to Cavalia. I'll admit, I'm even kind of excited to see the show, and I'm not a big fan of horses.

But this year I was pretty much blown away on the gifts others got for me, every one of them was awesome and there were a couple that were flat out amazing. One that I've waited for more than a decade for. This year for Christmas I got my Grandpa's .357 Magnum. I'll definitely be doing some more research in to this gun, and frankly I can't wait to fire it. This gun is extremely special to me because it is a gun that Grandpa taught me to shoot with. I have waited for about 15 years for this gun, so yeah, I teared up a little when I opened it.

That was followed up by an awesome display case for a Katana sword that I've got. It's a Heron Mark blade (Wheel of Time) that I've had for a long time and have wanted to get a display for, and my Mother-in-law got me an absolutely awesome display case for it. This is going up as soon as possible!

After that my wife decided to get me the Blu-Ray of Lord of the Rings trilogy, extended edition. I was beside myself with all these awesome gifts. Then in the sneaky way of my wife she also got me an autographed Brandon Roy picture. I think it's safe to say that I might have liked this a bit. This is especially true as I firmly believe these are going to become quite scarce over the next few years and will be something I will treasure forever. I will be that old codger in 40 years talking about how lucky I was to see the great Brandon Roy play, and I will point to that picture when I tell the stories.

So all in all, it was frankly an awesome Christmas, it was on a major low point just before the holiday began, but in the end everything turned out way better than just "all right". It was amazing.

Oh yeah, and Jesus was born 2012 years ago, saved our souls, and taught us how to all be better people. This is what should be remembered above everything else.

Next blog.... Adventures in car buying.