Hi, Everyone!
Aunt Kara gave Uncle Steven a label maker for Christmas, and look at the first label he made! I don’t think Aunt Kara needs a label to know where the baby is, now that the baby is kicking her. After Aunt Kara and Uncle Steven went back to Arlington, Grandma and Grandpa hosted their usual New Years Eve party. I got to stay up for dinner with my friends, and Joe-san helped me toast the New Year with sparkling grape juice.Then I helped Grandma Sue-san work on our jigsaw puzzle before everybody went home.
After that, things started happening that we didn’t expect. Grandma got sick overnight, and instead of going to church on New Years Day to conduct the choir, she had to go to the hospital. When Grandpa came home from spending the day with her, he told me Grandma had to stay at the hospital because she was too sick to come home. I was a little scared. I missed Grandma and wanted her to come home. Not even the new Dilbert calendar and some chocolate made me feel better!
When Grandpa came home on Monday, he told me that Grandma was feeling much better and would only have to stay in the hospital one more night. Grandma said Grandpa and I should go to Grandma Sue-san and Papa Dick-san’s open house on Monday evening — that we both needed to spend some time with our friends. So Grandpa took me, and I did feel better afterward.
On Tuesday morning, Grandpa went to the hospital and came home with Grandma! She brought the flowers Bill-kun and Karin-chan’s family sent her in the hospital. Aren’t they pretty?
After Grandma came home, she and Grandpa got busy catching up on what they had planned before Grandma got sick. Tuesday night was really, really cold, so Grandma and Grandpa defrosted the freezer. On Wednesday, I helped Grandma take the ornaments off the Christmas tree, and I started with the new ornament that Aunt Kara made for us. We didn’t have time to start packing them up, so we just put them all on the dining room table. On Thursday, Grandpa took the lights off the tree and Grandma started packing up the ornaments. I helped Grandpa bundle the tree up in a tarp, so we could take it outside without scratching all the new paint on the way.
Friday was Twelfth Night — the official end of the Christmas season — and really warm for January. So Grandpa turned off the power to the lights on the apple trees and I helped Grandma take all the lights off and wind up the strings. By this time last year, we had lots of snow on the ground. This year, there isn’t any!
Even though Grandma had already packed two boxes of Christmas tree ornaments, look how many were left to pack on Saturday! I helped Grandma wrap up the rest until we were finally all done. Now all the Christmas ornaments are packed away for next year.
Bill-kun’s daddy just sent us a message that Bill-kun had to go to the hospital, too! He fell down the stairs and partly broke one of the bones in his arm. He’s supposed to be completely healed in two weeks, but I think that’s enough trips to the hospital for our family until it’s time for Uncle Steven and Aunt Kara’s baby to be born!
Love,
Lion-san