Did you enjoy your Christmas and New Year’s holidays?  Sometimes I think there is so much confusion and extra activities at this time of the year, it wears you out before it gets here. If you didn't get your Christmas card or receive cookies or banana bread on time from me I do have an excuse. This year Christmas seemed to bring on gifts I didn't necessarily expect, or want, but that is life. I think 2014 will go down in our family history as the year it was and one I don't want to remember.

I won't go into a great deal of detail - that would take a book. But I will share things that seemed to start when my mother was scheduled for her three month botox treatment for her Dystonia. Already a week late her condition was giving her a great deal of discomfort swallowing and breathing. She was trying every prescribed and home remedy that she could think of in hopes that she would get some relief. We were hoping that the botox injections that had been scheduled would relieve some of her problems.  About noon the day before she was suppose to see her doctor so that she could get her botox injections she tripped on a rug in her kitchen and fell, hitting her head on the corner of her kitchen range. I quickly called for medical assistance and our terrific first responders were there immediately.

And as you might have guessed the accident caused some additional problems for her.  Before she was going to leave the hospital it was determined that she needed 2 units of blood and a second night in the hospital. Meanwhile, due to the fact that she was in the hospital she was not able to make the trip to Rochester for her overdue botox injections.

A few days later I lost my balance trying to get a rubber spatula out of my kitchen drawer and proceeded to rip open the palm of my right hand, as well as part of my lower arm, on the handle to the kitchen drawer.  As a result, mother and daughter met each other in the emergency room one night when once again my mothers breathing problem got worse.

As you know I have been using crutches for 32 years and as a result of my injuries and supplicant stitches I was faced with the problem of trying to figure out how I was going to get around as I could not use my crutches as I normally do.  I did find a way to get by and thought that I was doing pretty good.

But several days later I fell in my garage while I was trying to carry something up the stairs into the house before I was to drive my mother to Rochester for her rescheduled botox injections. I landed on my left hand. I got up, went into the house and as I was going out the door I grabbed an ice pack from the freezer, and then went down to my mothers to pick her up. We made it over to Rochester where they shuffled my mother off to her appointment and me to the emergency room. As a result of my injury, I ended up having to have a spica cast put on my left arm.

Thank God for my daughter, Krista, who lives in Rochester.   She took charge of our situation in between her time at work taking care of walkers, wheel chairs, shuttle buses and more doctor visits than I like to think about. But God is good and we were very thankful that we were able to come home the night before the winter storm arrived.

My husband, Daryl, was scheduled for an eye appointment the next morning and I was scheduled for a dental appointment. We started out that morning for the trip to Burnsville but decided to turn around at Medford. At 10, the weather had calmed back down again and we were able to sneak to Owatonna for my dental appointment. We bucked the wind and snow, which had started up again, when we were ready to head back home.  Daryl later tried to get to Albert Lea to check on the boiler system at the church where he works but he wasn't too far out of town when once again discovered that the winds had picked back up again and he decided to turn around and came back home again.

Meanwhile my mother was a nervous wreck worrying about her grandson, Cam, and his wife, Dayna, being on the roads somewhere trying to get to and from their jobs. Dayna’s mother had come to the lake to take care of their daughter, Ava. Thank goodness the blizzard did quit at 3 o'clock as forecast.  I know it sounds like a "day in the life" but I praise our good Lord up above for watching over all of us.

If I forgot to wish you a Happy New Year - I guess you know why.

By the way, have you ever tried to type with one hand in a hard spica cast? It doesn't go well. I had to result to the "hunt and peck" method of typing with one hand but I did get my news sent to the paper.

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Birthdays and anniversaries:

• Thursday, January 22nd: Reese Hendrickson, Taylor Lunning, Christian Sletten, Tom Haried, Lyle Shaunce, Barbara Van Gorkom, Jeff Miller, Heather Sargent

• Friday, January 23rd: Eugene Worke, "Emeritus" Bob Hanson, Eugene Cornelius, Rodney Sorenson, Dean Broitzman, Garnet Folie, Jeff Miller, Chris Paulson

• Saturday, January 24th: Morgan Sophia Luhring, her 10th; Renee Polzin, Greg Menefee, Mary Cunningham, Trevor Tracy

• Sunday, January 25th: Calvin Thomas VanderStoep, his 6th; Sophia Mabel Olivia Mrotz, Max Thomas Powers Brekke, his 8th; Emma Meiners, her 7th;  Paula Olson, Vernon Simonson, Lana Thompsen, Troy Phagan, Ladawn Hatch

• Monday, January 26th: Andilynn Leigh Knudson, her 6th; Russell Nelson, Bonnie Peterson, Pat Reese Ceplecha, Linda Oldenburg, Angela Borchert, Donna Borchert Knudson, Amanda Abel

• Tuesday, January 27th:  Anna Mae Lee, Jon Berg, Linda Davis, Nancy Ingvaldson, Paul Larkin, Keegan Brighton, Myrtle Peterson, Ken & Waynette Peterson, Bruce & Rose Ann Kubicek

• Wednesday, January 28th: Brian Brekke, Kevin Stieglbauer, Kalei Wilson, Caleb Brocker, Ruth Paulson, Denise McGowan, Rachel Schei, Lona Berg

• Thursday, January 29th: Molly Jo Wayne, her 7th, Jalen Aaseth, Rick Seath, Andrea (Hanson) Carter, George Dettman, his 85th, Kim (Harpel) Johnson, Zenobia Haberman, Stephanie Jensen

• Friday, January 30th: Allison Grunwald, Renae Wallace, Trudy Nelson, Cody Boverhuis, Dennis Jensen, Jeanette Fetterly, Michael Robinson, Scott Morreim, Wally Wobschall, Missy (Wayne) & Sean Engel, their 6th, Paul & Diane Stollard

Let the good times carry you away on your special day!