We had a really good Christmas. Mom was able to come out to our family day on boxing day and enjoyed herself till about 4pm when she headed out the door of the party room and was headed home no matter what so we drove her home. Last year she wanted to stay for the whole time but I'm glad she was happy for at least a few hours.My reward for helping her make the white snowflakes to give out was that about the fourth time I went in to work on them with her she said: "Oh there's our stars!" when I pulled them out. I never expected her to remember them at all. Of course when I gave them to her to give them out she didn't remember them, but I'm grateful for that one time that she did.
About a week before Christmas I attended a church service with Mom at her nursing home. It was headed by the three pastors of the three churches in the small town she lives in. That's her in the top picture enjoying reading the Christmas carols. She especially enjoyed Joy To The World and kept reading it even after the minister began his talk. Right in the middle she called out loudly, "Repeat the sounding joy! Repeat the sounding joy!"
Behavior like that would have been devastating to her before Alzheimers but is pretty much par for the course at a nursing home. The minister was not bothered in the slightest. Later in her room she told me that there were children down the hall practicing carols and Dana (one of her now grown up grand children) called out loudly right in the middle of a minister's talk! I'm glad she assigned the gaff to a child in her mind and didn't remember doing it herself.
There's a lot of flu and cold going around and we hope Mom doesn't get sick but I think she would gladly take the risk no matter what to be around her family and we had a pretty great Christmas!
Here's the movie:
1 comment:
What a great video from the holidays. Your mom at the service reminds me at the nursing home they started a choir. She's in it. They had a little concert. Every time they started to sing mom was always a few words behind and when they would end she would still be singing, ha. She had a good time though. They also have been having a lot of people come and sing for the holidays which she totally enjoys. I'm happy you had a good Christmas and your mom looks like she enjoyed herself too. Happy New Year.
Post a Comment