Thanksgiving 2008

Even though I was getting better, I was still sick right before Thanksgiving. I mainly had congestion in my chest, so when I went to bed, I couldn't sleep and would cough and cough. I finally made ANOTHER appointment to the doctor for Wednesday. I wanted to try and knock off whatever I had left of bronchitis and go back to work well.

The doctor prescribed Methylprednisolone (Met-Pack), a light steroid where you start off taking 6 tablets the first day, 5 the second 4 the next, etc. You taper off by one tablet each day until you are taking one tablet on the last day. Believe me, this med did its job from day one. I can feel the pressure coming off of my chest. He also gave me two different kinds of cough medicine. I tried the one that has codeine the first night so that I can sleep, but had some weird dreams and side effects. The Met-Pack makes me wired, like I have an extra boost of energy. When I took the cough medicine, it would TRY to put me to sleep. I had a hard time sleeping, but when I did sleep, I had weird dreams, and then I woke up early. It was strange.

On Thanksgiving, I felt strange. Rested, but slow, and unsure. I managed to make a turkey and the rest of Thanksgiving. This was the first time I had ever made Thanksgiving dinner. We usually go to my friend's house in Waco, or someone else's house, or buy one of those ready-made dinners from the store. This year I actually made the dinner. And it wasn't bad, either.

Before I put the turkey in the oven.

(Notice my cat Mary in the background)

We bought a turkey with a pop-up timer. Good thing, because I didn't have a meat thermometer.

Our tradition is to put up the Christmas tree on Thanksgiving night or the day after. We spent two days (actually Corinne spent two days) putting up the tree. She made sure the lights worked, then organized the ornaments.

Corinne got tired of restringing the lights every year on the tree. So, her idea was to put a strand of lights on each section of our artificial tree, then plug each section in as she put the tree together. (There are three sections to the tree). That way, when she brings the tree down, the lights will remain intact.

The finished product. We are now in the process of trying to teach Samy not to climb the tree, or play with the ornaments. Mary resorts to sitting under the tree, and becomes our "present" every year.

Our Christmas Tree Angel. A dear friend of ours, Scott R., gave it to me for my birthday. (My birthday is 6 days before Christmas). I love this bear because our tree's theme is bears and stuffed animals, and this angel is perfect for our tree.

I'm kind of looking forward to going back to work on Monday, but then again, I'm not. I look around and see all of the things I need to do. I still have a lot of things in boxes, and I'm trying to slowly purge things out of my life. It's not easy purging. I want to keep everything, but I know it is best not to keep moving things I'm not even using. So, I'm building a nice garage sale pile, and the rest is going to the garbage. So, part of my time off at home, I've been purging. I still have a long way to go.

I hope your Thanksgiving was restful, and productive.