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Go for it, Spry! Life isn't always a bed of roses. We're only human, after all <3

On the theme of not so good holidays, here we go...

On Thanksgiving I saw my grandmother for the last time. Sadly she died on Dec 4th. My grandmother has had Alzheimer's for some time and has been rapidly declining since around this time last year. Last year on Thanksgiving she was mobile and had more continent days than not but by Christmas last year she was bed ridden; where sadly she stayed more almost a whole year. She would go through spurts where she would feel strong enough to walk to the dinning room, other times we were lucky to get her to sit up and take her meds. This year has been especially tough on her and the rest of the family as we helped care for her. Some days were better than others, some days she knew exactly who I was and how old I was (24), others she knew my name and my relation to her but I was 5 years old, and other days I was a complete stranger to her and frightened her. I was fortunate enough to have visited her two weeks before Thanksgiving on a day where she was very aware and seemed to be the same old sassy lady I have known and loved my whole life. I am so grateful for this day, even if we did spend it at the ER, because I feel like I got to say goodbye to the woman that I loved instead of the empty shell this horrible disease had made her. On Thanksgiving day was the last time I saw her but she was scared of me and didn't say a word as she was trapped inside her mind. Needless to say that the holidays have rough this year, and I don't foresee them getting easier anytime soon.

I’m not sure whether you mean holiday as in vacation? Because I’m a pet owner and live by myself so don’t really get to go away anywhere lol. That in itself isn’t ideal!

If you mean holiday as in the festive time of year, well this Christmas hasn’t exactly turned out how I thought it would. I’ve been sick since before Christmas Eve, and I’m pet-sitting my boss’s cocker spaniel puppy. I had been looking forward to it but she’s had no training or boundaries enforced so I’m having to teach her manners with no voice! She gets taken outside regularly for toilet breaks, but instead she just runs around chasing the chickens and eating goat poo. Then as soon as I bring her back inside she pees on my rug!
Nothing like a puppy to test your patience. I can’t wait to give her back on Monday :))

Well, my husband has a job that can take him out of town for long periods of time. We also live in Montana, so, snow. Last year, he was working at a power plant that was around a 2 hour drive from home. He was scheduled to be off around Christmas so that he could come home and we could do our normal thing (Christmas Eve with my parents and assorted family for dinner, then gifts the next morning). But, as I mentioned before, snow! It started snowing, hard, the day before he was scheduled to come home. And it kept snowing for 3 or 4 days. Roads were crap, so instead of coming home, he stayed in his hotel room. I had him on speaker phone on Christmas Eve for a while, and he got food so he could kind of eat with us. We weren't actually able to do his Christmas until after the new year. :)

@DevilsParadise, I live in MT too, last winter was crazy.

Ok I have 2 stories and I can’t pick between the two. One is bad, the other is amusing.

So last October I was getting into my car after a riding lesson, and next thing I know the I’m flat on my back, trying not to cry from the intense pain I felt in my left knee. Also as I’d fallen I’d heard a horrible grinding, cracking noise coming from my knee. I was sure I’d torn cartilage at the best, and broken my knee at the worst. Luckily I had a hospital appointment the next day. So anyway I hobble into the doctors office. We talk a bit they take a couple of exrays and informe me I’d dislocated my knees, they didn’t think I had any damage, but I should do PT for awhile and see if it got better. Fast forward to December my knee still isn’t better I am terrified to walk down stairs for fear of my knee giving out on me. So I see the doctor again after a MRI and they informed me I’d stretched one of the ligaments in my knee to the point it was no longer holding my knee cap in place properly. Which was causing all the instability in my knee. So I felt I had no option I couldn’t live without being able to trust my knee. So I decided to do surgery. There were two dates open the 21st and the 23rd of December. My grandparents were coming to visit my family for Christmas and were coming on the 22rd. So I picked the 21st. The surgery went fine but I was rather out of it from the pain killers. Anyway family came to visit that was great my boyfriend came over Christmas Eve which made my night. Christmas Day comes around and I’m extremely nauseous. I barely made it through the opening gifts tradition before I’m about to puke. Which I did start doing. So not only did I just have surgery now I’m sick on Christmas. It turns out I no longer needed the amount of pain medication I was told to take. After I cut back I was fine. Two days after Christmas I was sick and tired of everyone doing everything for me so I decided to get myself a cup of tea. (I didn’t need crutches for my leg since it was weighing bearing.) I had it all made I even walked across the kitchen with it but right before I went to set it down it somehow slipped out of my hands and spilled all over the front of me and started soaking and burning it’s way down my bandages on my knee. So that was my interesting/painful Christmas.

The next one was on Valentine’s Day. My fiancé (the boyfriend from December) asked me if I would like to come to his house for valentines dinner with his family. Of course I said yes and he came and picked me up. So out to the ranch we go. Now it’s been snowing like crazy since December, and his family literally has two of the ten pickups they own unburied. They had drifts up to the roof of their house! It was quite the sight. Anyway halfway through dinner with his parents and sister, it starts blizzarding... it was so bad we could barely see yard light. His dad said he didn’t want anyone going back into town tonight. So I was stuck. Now most people would be thrilled to be stuck somewhere with their fiancé, and while I was thrilled, I was also very uncomfortable. I have very strong morals on what should, and shouldn’t happen before marriage. So sharing a room with him was out of the question for me. Luckily his family shared my point of view. So I stayed on the couch, but it was a very long night. I got home the next morning without a problem. But that was a very memorable Valentine’s Day.

Thank you for telling me your stories everyone! Even if holidays don't go as planned, there is always light at the end of the tunnel!

@SquishLime, you are the lucky winner! Taking care of other people's dogs is definitely fun until it is not! Maybe she will lose a bit of her sass when she grows up?