Thanksgiving Wrap-Up

Well, my brother and his wife left yesterday afternoon (his daughter had to leave Thanksgiving, after dessert, as the store where she is employed required her on Friday), so the house now seems very quiet. We're still finding the odd bits and slices of leftovers in the fridge but, as the priest reminded us in church today, next Sunday is the first of Advent. Before we move along, though, I wanted to take another look back at our holiday week!

(My brother and his sweet wife. That "newlywed" thing hasn't worn off -- they're pretty darned cute!)

(Ed and his bird.)

(Watching the parade)

(Me, trimming beans)

 
(Finn. He says beans are not nearly as good as turkey, but much better than celery.)

(Katie, trimming beans. She actually did other things too.)

(Daddy took us out to Pirate's Landing.)

We watched Casablanca. Still a great movie.

My brother brought his guitar. Ed has fallen out of the habit of practicing and my brother gave him some tips to get him back on track.

 (Finny loves Mabel SO much.) 

Ed signed on to do the shopping (and wrapping) for our church for three children who were in need of presents. Those are three lucky children, as Ed is a fine shopper, and it was nice for him to revisit the toy aisles! Two children in the family will get battery powered motorbikes, and Ed charged the batteries for them. Livy was interested!

Finn has now loved Mabel all to bits. Silly pup.

I went over to my parents' house on Friday and Saturday to be part of the discussions with the various members of the hospice team who visited to sign my mom up for their services and help us get started. They are all warm, kind people, and I'm deeply grateful for the services they are going to be providing, but the discussions were hard. My mom is smart and put all her wishes regarding her final illness, pain management, and death in writing, so it's all pretty clear, but I still felt utterly heartless having these clinical conversations, with the health professional who be involved, in front of my poor, wordless mother. All the various interventions they would not be implementing, the final arrangements, etc. A couple years back our church had a "class" where we were supposed to start planning our own funeral services -- the readings we'd like, favorite hymns, songs for the wake, and so on -- and it seemed rather jolly. This was not like that. Ed and I have been saying for quite a while that we need to put together directives for our final days, but now it appears a more daunting project. What seemed in my mom's directive, back when I read it several years ago, to be rational and reasonable now is actually determining the "saving" actions her care team will Not be providing. And I think she made good choices. In fact, I might easily copy her directives word for word -- it's a good plan. But it's still hard to accept the reality of it. Still, she's handling it with the courage she's always shown, and I guess our part is to buck up and fill her remaining time with love and cheerfulness, pies, good books, and beautiful music.