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Thursday, December 6, 2018

November wrap up

This was a generally a fun month for us! Granddaughter and Hubby's birthdays a day apart, Thanksgiving with family and generally a cozy California month. It was also a month of further deterioration of my FIL's health (he is 92).

First 3 days: Tough start to the month. Hubby went over to his father's assisted living facility three times to consult with the hospice nurse, assisted living staff and his father after his Dad was found unresponsive twice. His level of care was increased. Hospice is great as is being close enough for DH to help manage care and be there to talk and listen.

On a happier note, our granddaughter loves planes and spots them in the sky before anyone else! Her 2nd birthday party has a female aviator theme and we get to make 150 paper airplanes that will be part of some yet unexplained decor installation. DIL is a non-profit fundraiser and does lots of events and has the best ideas. So on the hunt for red and tan printer paper to fold into planes

Week 1: My father-in-law died Sunday morning at the age of 91 so this week is about arrangements, family support and change. The fires in S. Cal started on Thursday. We evacuated ourselves and dog on Thursday evening to our son and DIL's house in Pasadena so we could be sure to make the funeral on Friday and not have problems due to road closures. The funeral was touching and a celebration of his life. About 10 people couldn't make it because of the fires but the rest of us gathered afterwards at my BIL's house. We went home Saturday to find out the fires had come close to our community but stopped on the other side of a wide dry creek bed. 10 fires trucks were lined up ready to act though. The assisted living facility where my FIL lived was under mandatory evacuation. What a week.

Week 2: It has been all about Pet Club meetings and to do items, finally getting back into FIL's apartment to do some more clearing out work, and then heading to Berkeley for our granddaughter's 2nd birthday party. Nice to turn our minds to happy family gatherings.

Week 3: Way fun to spend time with an almost 2 year old. Singing silly songs, marching around and much more. All the time indoors because the wildfires in N Cal made the air quality awful. The birthday party was a success. Many more paper airplanes were made than were hung but it was really cute! There was even a toy plane cake topper.


Then back home to  get ready to host Thanksgiving dinner. I am extremely thankful that you can buy a cooked turkey, side dishes and pie from Whole Foods and just go pick it up! That way we have salad, scalloped potatoes and an apple crisp coming with guests so all we had to do was clean, make snacks for before dinner and buy wine and beer.

To wrap up this week we finished emptying my FIL's assisted living apartment and may get a partial month refund of his fee to add to his estate. In the end we were able to find people who wanted most of the furniture and decorative items, donated bath/kitchen items and clothing and then had the rest hauled away on Saturday.

Week 4: It only took 19 months after our move, but we now have our CD player, receiver and speakers set up in the living room! Old technology but good quality. The table holding the TV in the den now holds them and a cabinet from my FIL's holds the TV. I have my music again. Now to figure out how to turn on wi-fi on the TV we brought home from FIL's and see if we can stream movies to it.

Hope your November had lots of happy moments.


8 comments:

  1. Such an eventful month for you, Juhli. Glad you had happier times as the month progressed and now have easy access to your music play list. Hope your December is filled with joyful moments.

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  2. Sorry to hear about your father in law's passing. We lost my father in law just a few months ago and it can be a hard road, on top of my father's passing earlier in the year. Glad you managed to enjoy your granddaughter's birthday and Thanksgiving.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you. It was the amazing roller coaster of life's emotions for sure.

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  3. You have had a very busy month. I hope that the new year will be happier and more relaxing.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you. December feels back to normal so far.

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  4. Such a contrast of highs and lows for you in November, Juhli. I hadn't realized how closely the wildfire burned to your complex - on top of everything thing else you were dealing with!

    I hope you enjoy a more peaceful December filled with family and celebration.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you. We were grateful to have our son and DIL's to evacuate to and it was a good rehearsal as to how hard it is to decide what to pack even if you have time. After the people, pets, medicines, money, phone, laptop, purse, critical papers, etc. what do you take? We decided if we had really thought it was likely to burn down our house we would have taken some photos and/or family art pieces.

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