Only 21 days until Christmas???

Okay, it is bad enough that we just started  the last month of the year but seriously, only 21 days until Christmas????? I have been doing my best to get working on Christmas shopping and I can not imagine how people managed before the internet or even the old catalogs from Sears and Montgomery Wards, but I am the person who LOVES to go see the decorations in the mall, see the little kids all excited waiting to see Santa and here I am stuck on bumm with my leg in a cast and unable to do things which bring the holidays alive for me. Luckily I have a wonderful family who have been going out of their way to make their Momma feel better about the whole situation.

As if being in the hospital in October and November wasn't enough, I started December back in the hospital with a severe asthma attack, probably the worst one I have ever had. As many of you know, autumn leaves and cold snaps are my big triggers for bronchial spasms which means my asthma is only seasonal not annual. However, it can be a extremely quick onset and very hard to treat. This was the case on Thursday. I had seen my regular doctor at 2:30 and after listening to my lungs, assessing my symptoms (sinus drip, congestion, no fever) he diagnosed me with an upper respiratory infection. Asked me if I had plenty of inhalers and albuterol for my nebulizer and I assured him I was ready if needed, however I didn't seem to be wheezy or having any usual symptoms.

By 5:00 p.m. all that changed, the kiddos grabbed my nebulizer and medications very quickly and set me up with a treatment. The first 15-20 minutes after treatment I was feeling better and then another attack occured. A second treatment was taken and this one didn't seem to help at all. At this point, I realized a trip to the hospital was in order and so we went to the local hosptial for treatment. There I had another 5 nebulizer treatments from a respiratory therapist before my breathing started leveling out. Luckily the ER doctor was an old acquiantance from the EMT days and after listening to the history quickly gave me the necessary steroids to help maintain my respiratory track. Currently the kids and I have upper respiratory infections so we are just a bunch of diseased creatures. Hopefully all this gets out of the household this year so that when 2012 comes around, everyone can be starting school and work with clean bills of health.

Knitted dishcloths are in full swing to be little extras to be added to Christmas presents to friends and families. The one shown being worked in the last blog has been completed and while it is nice, I didn't like how much white was in the yarn. Then I completed the two toned blue dishcloth which really caught my eye. I'm really loving that blue one and am thinking some of these are in the future for my kitchen. Currently I am working on a tricolored dishcloth which is coming along nicely and may be moving up the list of the favorites. I am hoping to complete about 16 of these for Christmas and since it takes me about a day and half for each, I should be able to meet my goal. Currently I have 10 completed I am halfway there with another one in progress making 11 ~ 5 more to go after that.

Two more completed dishcloths.

 

I also have a last minute stitching gift in progress as well. A cousin of mine that actually grew up sharing a room with my Mom has a birthday in December. Since my Mom's death, she has went out of her way to make efforts to strengthen our family ties. My Mom loved being the matriach of our family so everything went through her no matter how old us kids became. With that being said, there was a lack of closeness with cousins and all since most of my 1st cousins are 30-35 years older than me. I was definitely a later in life child for my parents, especially since my Mom would have been 84 this year and my Dad would have been 92.

So I decided to make her a Festive Trees ornament, especially since I had all the required skeins pulled already and didn't have to work my way back into my craft corner to pull any necessary supplies. So far, I am stitching right along and hopefully can finish it up soon. Then I will need to have my sewing machine set up and work on finishing them, hopefully in time for the holidays.

Festive Trees ornaments. One completed; one in progress

Progress on 2nd Festive Trees ornament

So other than all this activity between hospital and doctor visits, I haven't managed to accomplish very much. Hopefully as the medications start taking affect, we all start feeling better and I can get back into the grove with things.

I do have one other update to provide before signing off for today. Mylene sent me a beautiful Christmas ornament the other day from the Netherlands and really made my day. She does beautiful stitching and I'm looking forward to placing it on my tree this year and every year and remembering the wonderful friend who sent it. :) Thank you so much Mylene, it turned out wonderful and your finishing is flawless!

Ornament received from Mylene

Until next time, keep your stitchin' and knittin' needles moving, spend time with family and friends and most of all, enjoy life.