Merry Christmas

Our families live in Wisconsin and since I worked on Christmas Eve and we both work tomorrow we decided to stay here for Christmas. Yesterday, I went to work and we saw patients until 12:00pm. It can be so frustrating being a nurse. Our office has openings for “sick calls”. Basically if you are sick or have an acute issue we can get you in to be evaluated by the doctor on the same day you call. This does not apply for chest pain/shortness of breath or trauma such as injuries with bones sticking out or if you shoot your eye out with a Red Ryder BB gun (you get my drift). Those are emergencies and those people need to go to the ER. Our physicians don’t typically just write out prescriptions for antibiotics. If you think you are that sick that you need one, we want you to be seen. That being said, on more than one occasion, I was screamed at, hung up on, and told to have a “Merry Christmas” in a not so “merry” way. Apparently, people are too busy and too sick to come and see the doctor. They just want antibiotics, muscle relaxants, narcotics, and hypnotics and really can’t understand what the big deal is with just calling in these medications. You can tell that I had a lovely morning.

Chief went running with TL and then he helped the neighborhood make 800 luminaries and then distributed them down our block. He said that there were 8 “crews” in all so that the whole surrounding neighborhood around Randall Park made and put out something like 6000 of these things. Later last night we went out to Giordano’s for pizza. Giordano’s was very busy. They had every booth filled and people coming in and picking up for carry out. I think this will be a new tradition for us. This morning Chief and TL ran again. Did I mention they are training for the Illinois Marathon in April? Their running schedule is messed up this week. He ran three days in a row! I bet he will be glad to get back to his Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday schedule. Besides running he has been doing double dog walking. I am usually in charge of morning walks but because of the cold and ice he has taken over for a while. I am so afraid of falling (broke arm exactly one year ago when I slipped). After showering we took a road trip to Dunk’n Donuts for bagels and coffee. It is so icy and cold. We have had some crap weather so far this winter. Snow, ice pellets, rain and now our driveway is a frozen river. I heard that we are going to warm up, get rain, and potential flooding. This makes me worried because there is a chance we won’t get to Two Rivers on Saturday.

Santa came for the boys. They are so funny when they unwrap presents. Chief and I just giggle. Dusty takes off the tiniest pieces. It takes him forever to open a gift. JJ is a pro at this. Santa was sneaky and wrapped some of their old toys. The boys would take out the old toy and keep pulling at the paper because they knew something else had to be in there. After Christmas pictures, every one found a spot (even Chief) to curl up and take a nap.

We made a ham and all the fixings for Christmas dinner. For the rest of the evening, I plan on opening a bottle of wine and will need to finish gift-wrapping for Saturday’s Christmas at my mom’s. We have a movie to watch that we rented from Blockbuster’s called “Joyeoux Noel”. It is supposed to be very good and is about Christmas Eve in 1914 on a WWI battlefield. It was a quiet and lazy Christmas Day at our house and this evening will be the same. We will need all of our energy because Christmas in Wisconsin is still coming.

We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!