Christmas seems to be pretty much over, although New Year's is still pending. I've been off work since Friday the 22nd. In the evening I finally set up the Christmas tree (I'd have skipped it altogether this year if I could have gotten away with it). Beth and I ran up to Nappanee on Saturday to pick up our half-cow. It is a large cow this year, although it seemed like we didn't get as many steaks (especially ribeyes, seemed short). Later on I took the kids to the Village to get some last minute shopping done, and we went to an evening showing of the new Star Wars movie. The Last Jedi was pretty good, although I did think it dragged a bit in the front half. Speaking of our cow, we still had a lot of meat left over (and we were having some difficulty getting all the meat put away in the freezer) so we packed a cooler for some friends to drop off after church Sunday. Also on Sunday, the snow started in earnest. By 9, it was coming down hard. By 12:30, the roads were getting bad. Laura and Thomas were coming in from PA and planning to get to Mom's by 3, but we were getting concerned that the roads would be bad enough that maybe we wouldn't want to stick around for dinner afterwards as we planned (I had to stop in Columbia City to get new wiper blades for the van). Beth and the kids and I got there around 3, Laura and Thomas were a bit late but made it with no problems. We hadn't seen Mom in a week, but she seemed to be doing all right. It didn't seem like it was registering that several days had passed since we saw her. But she also lit up when she saw that Laura was there. We got her a nice fuzzy blanket for Christmas, which she seemed to like a lot. We had a visit for a couple hours, during which she showed us her room several times and we watched TV in the common room, then brought her downstairs to sit in the larger room and watch the birds. Leaving was difficult; Mom wanted to go with me and didn't understand why she needed to stay there. She got agitated and didn't realize that she lives there. Anyway, we told her how far away we had to go and how cold it was outside and she eventually agreed to stay. Laura & Thomas and Beth & the kids and I all went out to dinner then at the Hoppy Gnome downtown in Fort Wayne, which was very good, they specialize in craft beer and tacos and seem to do those things quite well. Monday was Christmas: the kids were all up early but we made them wait until Laura and Thomas got here, which wasn't until around 9. Good haul for the kids again this year, pretty standard lines: Alex got video games, Missy got stuffed animals and art supplies, Natalie got clothes and makeup. For the rest of the day, we hung out at home because it was snowy and freezing. Laura and I went through what's left of Mom's stuff,and we had a nice dinner in. They stayed overnight again and left in the morning after breakfast.
Tuesday, Beth had a doctor appointment to discuss the antidepressant medication she's been on and hated for 10 years. She is going to go off it and back onto the medication she was on before, which means a month of weaning off it. Which is going to suck, but will be excellent in the end. Also Tuesday I replaced the ceiling fan in our bedroom, since the old one had been buzzing and making the lights in the house flicker whenever we ran it for a long time now. We bought a new one a couple weeks ago but I finally got to replacing it. It is so much quieter and no flickering lights!
Wednesday we went back to Fort Wayne again to visit Mom. When we first got there Mom was participating in a group activity (!!) so we left before she noticed us to go to Barnes & Noble and come back later. Time was short since Nat had counseling later that day so we split up, with the girls staying at the mall to get some shopping done and Alex and I going back to visit Mom. She didn't have any problems when we left this time, thankfully. We raced back to town for Nat's appointment after a short visit. Today, we're all headed to Chicago.