Snow Day

We've had (it seems) more than our share of snow so far this year.
And it doesn't appear to be over any time soon.
What started out yesterday as rain, changed to sleet this morning and then quickly snow - a heavy wet snow.
School was dismissed early.
Leila and I were there, but left before the dismissal time.
The roads got so bad, so fast that I even texted the boys and told them to skip out of their last class and come on home.

Since it wasn't overly cold (and Austin was actually home today), the boys decided to take Leila out to play.
Up until this year, she has NOT been a fan of playing in the snow.
I haven't played in the snow for quite a while myself, so I joined them too.
It wasn't good snow for sleigh riding - ours wouldn't go.
But it's perfect snow for building a snowman or snowball fights.
Our snowman turned out pretty pitiful, but it was fun anyway.
And Leila loved 'throwing' her snowballs at the boys.

Cleveland

Mom and Dad left for Cleveland Clinic last Mon.
Darrell, Leila and I went up on Thurs to be with them over the weekend.

I really think Cleveland is the coldest place I've ever been.
It snowed almost continuously while we were there.
Temperatures were in the single digits (or below) and that's not counting the wind chill from the ever present breeze off frozen Lake Erie.

As far as Dad goes, it seems like things change daily.
He originally went up there to have a 'port' put in.
They did something called a 'Swans-Ganz Right Heart Catherization' on Fri.
Based on those results, they're not going to do the port now.
He has fluid buildup. As of today, they've taken 21 lbs of fluid off him, and there's still more to go.
His left leg isn't going down at all, and at this point, they're not sure why.
They changed some of his medications today.
It seems as though his options for treatment are dwindling. And none of them they've mentioned yet is extremely appealing.

Leila did pretty good to have been cooped up in either the hospital or the hotel for 4 days.
And Darrell was invaluable with his help. (He's such a good boy.) I'm glad I let him miss a day of school to go with me.

The bright spot in the weekend though was lunch on Fri.
We have friends that we traveled to China with in 2008 that live in that area.
They braved the cold and ventured out to meet us for lunch.
It was SO nice to see them and catch up a little bit in person.
I hated to see our time together end.

After leaving them, Darrell and I decided to explore a little and go see Lake Erie.
It's all frozen!
I only made it part way down to the lake from where we parked.
It was so cold it made me hurt. (We didn't exactly bring clothes for Arctic weather.)
Darrell went on as far as he could. He wanted to find a place to walk on the lake.
Not being from the area and not really having any idea where we were going, we didn't find a place with 'walking access'. He did get some good pictures though.

Leila and Claire


All Ice

Christmas

Dad's been in and out of the hospital several times in the last month.
He was home for Christmas though.

Christmas was relatively laid back this year.
In spite of all the hustle and bustle and busyness, you realize that the only thing that really matters is being together.
We went to Jim and Marcia's house (my aunt and uncle) on Christmas Eve.
No gifts - just visiting, eating and spending time together.
Christmas morning we opened presents and then had dinner at our house.
We finished out the day at Mom and Dad's.

Leila thoroughly enjoyed Christmas this year.
But she is slow, slow, slow at opening presents. It took her forever. One little piece of wrapping paper at a time - put that little piece in the trash - play with whatever it was - convince her to move on to the next one - over and over again.
Quite a time-comsuming process!
Although she liked the toys she got, she LOVED the candy.
(Santa probably could have saved some money if he'd skipped the toys and just brought candy.)

Christmas Sunday

Santa's Cookies

Christmas Morning

Grandkids