What a week this has been. I am supposed to be in NYC right now, getting ready for my flight back home. But I am already home. Our trip to New York, that we had been planning for 6 months, lasted less than 24 hours. We weren't sure we were even going to be able to go, but then my MIL seemed to be doing a little better, we had a diagnosis and meds, so I let them convince me to go home, so that I could make our trip the next morning. We left Ft. Smith a little after 6am Thursday and got into NYC around 3:30 that afternoon. We walked around a little that evening, had dinner and decided on an early night since I hadn't slept much since Sunday.
We got the first call around midnight our time that my MIL was being taken by ambulance to the hospital with a possible heart attack. Of course this meant we had to make arrangements to get back home. Fortunately there was a 7am flight Friday morning. We made it back to Tulsa around noon and took a cab directly to the hospital. The good news is that it wasn't a heart attack. Her sodium levels were very low and her electrolytes were out of balance as a result. After several bags of IV fluids, she was beginning to feel better. Her appetite returned for the first time in a month and the nausea she had been experiencing was getting better. We were able to bring her home on Saturday, on the condition that she not try and do anything at all and allow us to take care of my FIL and the house.

Not sure how long we will need to do this, but it is probably going to be a while before she can handle everything by herself again. So for now, my weeks will be spent in Tulsa and weekends at home.

Not sure when or if we will get a Christmas tree, it is kind of pointless right now. No one will really be here to enjoy it. But I didn't get a tree a few years ago, because no one was coming for Christmas and I just didn't think it was necessary. I said I would never do that again but you know what they say about never saying never.....

I think I will try and put out a few decorations so at least the few days I am at home, I can enjoy them. Not even sure where we will be this year for Christmas. I would still like to go to Boston, but it doesn't look like that is going to happen. We won't be having the Keeton family Christmas this year, my MIL is just not up to doing it. It will be the first Christmas Eve in Keeton history that at least some of them didn't come together for a meal and family time. But with my MIL being the only remaining sibling of the original 7 and no one else willing to take up the tradition, last year was probably the last time for it. This makes me very sad as I have been attending these gatherings since Ed and I married almost 33 years ago. And they had been going on many years before that. It truly is the end of an era.

So, today I will try and get the laundry done and things ready for me to go back to Tulsa tomorrow. I guess most of my shopping is going to be done online this year, with a few things picked up on the weekends when I come home. It is going to be a very different Christmas this year, that's for sure.....