It's nice to hear what everyone was up to

Elly, I'm glad everything has turned out well for you. I can attest to how frightening a thing it can be for all concerned. I am finally off the anxiety meds after a year, DH had a very hard time of it too, sometimes I think it was worse for him as he had to stand by and witness it all, feeling basically helpless. It's been over a year now and yes, things are different (especially in the dietary area!), but time does indeed help a lot. There was some overindulgence in that area over the holidays, but today (and I also got out of bed at 10 am today, Jackie!) there is a pot of lentil soup on the stove and homemade sourdough rising in the kitchen so it's back to the way I should be eating!

We were all at my Father's house for Christmas morning, the first time since my Mother passed away. Our son, his wife, our 4 yr old grandson, my brother, his wife, son and daughter and DH and I. The prime rib from Bon Appetit that I posted came out wonderfully. I didn't make the porcini sauce, just regular gravy. It was outstanding. We left the prime rib leftovers in the freezer in individual portions for Dad, but brought home the gravy and had it with leftover buttermilk mashed potatoes last night for dinner with sliced tomatoes and crusty bread. Nice to be home for a while in our own bed! We left Dad's freezer filled with easy things for him to prepare for himself. Our gift to him was homemade Steak and Kidney pies, which I made and froze for him. I made them pot pie size. They are one of his favorites. Our son and daughter-in-law brought him red and green tamales and our son made pineapple tamales while we were there. I packaged those up for him individually and put them in the freezer too.

We sure enjoyed being together sharing our love and memories of Mom. One of the funnier things that happened this year happened at my brother's home. They went to church Christmas Eve at midnight, leaving part of a pumpkin pie sitting on the counter. Their two beagles managed to get it off the counter, but when it fell, it fell upside down with the pie pan on top of it. Church was evidently not long enough for them to figure out how to lever the pan off of the pie. You could see where they had pushed the pie around and around the kitchen. I wish there had been a video camera going, I can just see the younger one looking at the older and saying..."You've been around, what do we do???? I can smell it but I can't get to it!!!" Thankfully there was another whole pumpkin pie left, evidently out of paw reach!