Best Christmas gift!!

Over the weekend the decision was made not to come to Columbus for Christmas but to have it at Angelique's. Dad was staying in Columbus and Greg was going to come down after our celebration to spend the rest of Christmas with Jon. It was a hard decision to make. My emotions have been all over with all the changes going on lately. I prayed that Christmas is God's Sons' birthday and wherever He wanted Jon to spend Christmas so be it. I had a list of places I wanted to take Jon if we only had a van. The very next day after praying and giving it over, I received a phone call from the van rental company that they had a van for us if we still wanted it. I immediately called Mom to see if she could get the "reception hall" in her church to have Christmas. Angelique lives in the 2nd story of a house and so therefore that no longer worked. Within a half hour, Mom called back and said we could have the church from 12-6. Jon is still taking the IV and it doesn't normally end until 11 so that worked out fine. Jon and I asked if they could start the IV at 8 instead of 9 thereby leaving closer to 10:30. It takes about 15 minutes to get him strapped in and ready to go. I had called at 7:50 a.m. to remind them to start it at 8:00 and I was told it was started already. I got there at 9:40 hoping that it was almost done. It wasn't. Jon said they did not actually start it until 8:05. However, we were still loaded and actually left at 10:30!! Getting the van and taking Jon to my church for Christmas Eve service, taking him shopping and to Defiance for Christmas was my Christmas gift. We also plan on going to the Columbus Zoo for the Christams lights on Saturday and he wants to go back to my church on Sunday!!!! I told him we would have to go get a steak dinner. We haven't planned that yet. We have the van until Sunday night so we are going to use it!!!!!!

Christmas was very nice. Everyone liked having it at the church. It gave Jon room to ride around, they have a very nice and large kitchen, we ate together without being cramped and he had friends stop by to see him. Jon did not want me to publish in the post that he would be in Defiance until after the fact just because we didn't know how many people would try to come and we had to leave between 6 & 7 to get him back in time for the 9:00 IV (he could start at 10 and still be ok). His last day on the IV will be December 30th. Then the transfer papers can be submitted. We hope to have him home for good around the new year so he wanted to wait until he was home to have everyone stop in. As it was we got back at 9:25 and it was 10:20ish before his aide came in to help get him to bed. He was supposed to get his shower tonight but she didn't have time to do it all before her shift ended at 11:00. By the time she got in there I already had Jon out of his chair and into bed and was starting to get him undressed. The timing was good because it really takes two to get him undressed. His shirt and jacket we take off in the chair but the rest gets done while laying down in bed. When I left the room at 10:45, the IV had not been started yet.

When I got home and unloaded my stuff from the van I realized that I still have his eating tray in the van. Charlie (my dog) had been in the house for over 12 hours without being let out. After he came back in I was just too tired. If they give him a shower in the morning before breakfast then I should be able to get it back in time. If they don't give him a shower, then he won't have a tray to eat on. He eats at 7:00 am.

Hope everyone's Christmas was as blessed as ours. Merry Christmas to all!!!!!!

Barb