Twas the Weekend after Christmas…..

Well, before I get started I thought I would show you what I’ve been up to.  Actually maybe I should say what I’ve  gotten down to.  The picture to the left was taken the week of my surgery.  The picture on the right was taken this morning at Sisters house in GA.  I’ve lost a total of 71 lbs even through Thanksgiving and Christmas.  It’s been a hard journey and if anyone thinks that gastric sleeve surgery is the easy way out, let me say that you are sadly mistaken.  Food has been my life, socially and mentally for 42 years.  Now it keeps me alive and that is it.  I mean, I know that is important, but before August 1st, food was so much more in my life.  So, this is what I’ve been doing for the last couple months to keep going and not let food get me down.

So, this is where I hang out most weekends.  I love Georgia and find Sisters house to be a retreat from sitting at home and working.  Downtown Roswell is so quaint.  .

One of the little shops has asked me to paint some pictures for their store to sell. So, that will give me another thing to keep my mind on. I know that this might sound strange to someone without a eating disorder, but keeping busy is very important to me.

We spent Thanksgiving with Sister in Georgia.  Are you surprised?  No, I didn’t think so.

Sister made her first turkey and it was SO good.  Back in October we bought a brine from Williams & Sonoma.  It was our first brined turkey and let me say, I recommend it with this spice blend.

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Isn’t she lovely?

Sister and I also had a great time exploring the North Georgia Mountains.  One weekend, we decided to go apple picking.

Little did we know that the apple picking ended the weekend before even though it was not the last of October.  I begged to let me pick just one, but they said a firm, NO!  So, I took pictures of the apples still on the vine and then sister and I split a hot apple pie.  It was ok, nothing to write home about..but very blog worthy.

 

 

 

 

 

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Roswell Provisions is one of our favorite places to hang out.  In fact, it was this shop, that inspired Sisters kitchen.

And we managed a gingerbread house this year.  It was lots of fun for the two of us.

And this is what has taken all my effort since Thanksgiving.  Sisters kitchen is not that big, but there is one huge blank wall.  She found a vintage cheese box art piece and loved it.  This is what she wanted painted on the wall.  Yes, of course I can do this I tell her.  So, while she was away in NYC for a week of Christmas shopping, I travel back to Georgia and paint this for her.  I still have to distress it, but I’m very glad that I’m finished with it too.

That brings us to Christmas.

Each year, I give The Boy a Christmas ornament.  This year, I got The Boy & Girl one together.  Their first ornament as husband & wife; a bride & groom ornament.  I gave it to them prior to me leaving for Georgia (yes, back to GA) because I wanted them to have it for their tree.

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care.  Sister decided this year, she would make our stockings.  She did a great job.  The girls are red and natural burlap, while the boys are red with green burlap.  Great job Sis.

 

After we opened our Santa Clause gifts, we had lunch.  Christmas lunch consisted of Ham, mashed potatoes, steamed broccoli, corn on the cob, deviled eggs and our family famous dressing. We decided to forgo the sweet potato casserole and some other items because we were doing another dinner when the kidos arrived. And I have to say that it was amazing.

The Boy & Girl wanted to spend their first married Christmas in their house, so I was in Georgia with Sister and my parents. They arrived the day after Christmas though and we sure were excited to see them.

Christmas was great.  Family together and we had a great evening.  Just one more thing that would make the week complete.

 

 

 

 

 

Our visit with Grandma.  This is The Boy’s paternal grandmother.  She is 83 years young and a wonderful, amazing, funny Christian woman.  There are not enough positive adjectives in the human vocabulary to express who she is to us.  About 10 years ago, she had a brain aneurism on the right side of the brain.  Only 3% of the people with this type of aneurism survive and then only 1% survive with their memory.  Well, Grandma was that 1%.  However, over the past 10 years, her memory is starting to fade and on bad days she doesn’t remember her own daughter.  On good days, she remembers her daughter-in-law who was scared to death she would be not be remembered.

I know that is selfish of me, but this woman helped me so much through my divorce from her son.  She chose to listen to the truth instead of lies and chose to love me when she didn’t have to.

She even remembered The Boy and was so happy to meet her new Grand Daughter-in-law.  Although, she will tell you she has another grand daughter and there is no “in-law” about it.

After spending a great hour with Grandma, we give her a chance to rest and then head to our next destination.

 

 

 

 

 

Daddy is still friends with his best friend from high school.  Every so often, we are able to get together and this was that weekend.  We spent about 4 hours at a local restaurant talking and hanging out.  It was great hanging out and listening to all the “memories” we have and of course making new ones.

The Boy & Girl decided to make dinner for us and it was so good.  You know, it’s been a great year.  We have all grown and changed so much since last December 30th.  The Boy is married.  Sister is 3 hours away now.  I travel all the time and by myself.  Mama and Daddy joined a gym and work out every morning.  Yes, with all these changes, I can’t wait to see what 2013 hold for our family.