New Year, New Lee

Many apologies to all of you (if you are still checking my blog) for not being available to write.  We had a wonderful Christmas with our family and as you have surmised by now, one that kept me extremely busy.  Each day I would think I would be able to write only to discover that I did not have one bit of energy left from the full day!  If you are still there, I ask your forgiveness.  Now to catch up:

The good part to tell you about Christmas is that we were able to have part of the family here for Christmas eve and the rest of the family for Christmas Day.  There were, however some changes in schedules and sadness that accompanied our time together. 

On Christmas Eve, it has been our custom to have my children and their families and on Christmas Day we have Lee's children and their families.  Christmas Eve was a small gathering because of changing lives.  Greg's wife, Cathy had a cold and had to stay home.  His son Daniel traveled abroad to visit friends, daughter Rebekah was staying in Kernersville.  Bo stayed home with the twins who had colds.  So we only had my daughter Julia, the two girls, Greg and youngest son, Will.  We were a quiet, somber family.

Christmas morning, Cathy's father collapsed at home and died.  We found some comfort in knowing that while Cathy had to stay home on Christmas eve, she had found time to visit her parents.  It was the last time she saw her Dad.

Christmas Day was with the three Kanipe families but because it had begun to snow heavily, everyone had to exit much sooner than anticipated.  Everything seemed to go in a great rush!  None-the-less, we were able to enjoy our time together.

The time after Christmas was to attend the funeral and gatherings for Cathy's family.  It was a very sad time for all of them but they somehow managed to get together for a New Year's celebration at one of the family member's home.  After a week of grief they were somehow able to share in some rare moments of relaxation.

Lee and I greeted the New Year on New Year's Day because we retired before 10:00 on the eve.  Somehow the warm bed was more enticing than watching the ball drop at Time's Square!

I finally got all of Christmas decor put away and the tree down!  It is always good to get the house back together again.

We just returned from a visit to Durham.  We were there on January 6th for Lee's visit with the cardiac and the lung doctor.  The cardiac doctor discharged him from his services and said his heart appeared to be doing great!  After all the clinic rounds ( lab work, chest x-ray, lung-function tests), Lee saw the lung doctor and was told that this was his best clinic visit every!  His pulmonary function tests had improved by 11 % on one and by 8 % on another.  That was great news!  We were told not to return until March 17th.  Guess we will have to wear green!

Lee is doing fantastic!  He just gets in his truck and travels!  Sometimes I do not know he is gone until I get to missing him and the truck is gone!  Can you believe that!  What a miracle!
He is looking more like he did prior to November '09.  Getting stronger and walks freely without the aid of a rolater.  He is now anticipating going to the beach house sometime in February! 

What a joy to watch his amazing metamorphasis!  We feel so blessed and are so grateful that 2010 is behind us.  We were delighted to usher that year out the door and welcome 2011!

Happy New Year to all of you and I hope to hear from you somewhere along the blogging way.