Merritt saw an orthopedic surgeon and received a cortisone shot which helped his frozen shoulder and has been doing his daily physical therapy to get back his range of motion. His brother John went to Home Depot and made this shoulder pulley for him. The lung surgery is about 70% healed, The bigger issue is getting the shoulder working again. He has made some good progress and hopes to be in tip-top shape by January.
Merritt has three siblings in Sacramento, John, Brenda, and Milt. We have enjoyed spending time with them. Milt had to go back to work before we took this photo of us "retired" folks. We have enjoyed a couple of "game nights" with Milt and his wife Laura. It's nice to be close to family (something we have never experienced outside of a 2-week vacation).
Mark and Loretta Eliason came down from Redding and spent a couple days with us. We used to see them regularly (once a year) when we were driving from Portland to Sacramento. It was great to catch up with them. While Mark was in town several of Merritt's high school friends came to Ted's place for Swedish Pancakes. Merritt's mom used to make these for his friends when they came over. It was great to visit with them and their spouses.
We had a nice evening visiting with our friends, Pam and Richard Sopp.
The Sacramento Temple is only 10 minutes from Ted's home. Ted goes every week and enjoys having company.
It is a Dutch tradition to give chocolate letters during the Christmas season. Merritt found where he could buy them online but also found he could make them himself at half the cost. Heather and her sister Shenna made a couple of attempts with poor results and gave up. Merritt stayed up late that night and perfected the process. This will now be his responsibility for all future Christmas'. (Heather is relieved!)
We drove to Salt Lake City to spend Thanksgiving and Christmas with Madison and Evan's family. Madison had told her girls that we were not going to arrive until late that evening so we were able to surprise them when they came home from school. It was so fun to see them again.
The granddaughters enjoy helping Merritt with his physical therapy.
Heather is the craft and game Queen! The girls all enjoy spending time with their Oma playing games and doing projects.
We have had a lot of deliveries from Amazon. This granddaughter found a good use for the boxes. We have a very similar photo of Madison from when she was about this age.
On Thanksgiving day we helped the Fitzpatrick's put up their Christmas tree. The kids were very excited and happy to be decorating the tree and the adults, of course, enjoyed it as well.
We had a nice 3-day snowstorm over Thanksgiving weekend. We were watching Frosty the Snowman on TV which inspired the kids to want to build their own "Harry Potter" snowman in the backyard.
Also on Thanksgiving weekend, we got together with the Mealey cousins who also have four girls (and a great son, not in the picture).
While the kids had fun playing game the adults enjoyed putting together a puzzle which got finished just before we had to leave. Of course, we ate more good food as well.
On December 1st our oldest Granddaughter was baptized. It was so nice to be able to join in on this special occasion. Earlier that day in Testimony Meeting she bore a brief testimony about Jesus and the Book of Mormon. Priceless!
The girls can be goofy (actually they are often goofy and laughing) Here they are giving each other piggyback rides around the house. They are really fun girls to be around.
Merritt has enjoyed reading the Chronicles of Narnia with the girls as a bedtime story. We finish The Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe. Six more books to go!
We are looking forward to having the rest of our family join us for Christmas.
We wish you all a great Christmas Season of Peace and Joy!
I Love this blog and reading about your many adventures with family and friends. Truly a treasure of pictures and words! ❤
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