Christmas Day-Continued

After sitting with Grandpa and talking and watching him in amazement, Andy and Jack showed up.  All was well and we were in good spirits.  We decided to go back to the house and get ready for Christmas dinner at my brother Mikes house.  We got back to my Dads house, which was in Christmas shambles.  It was cozy and happy and the kids were having the time of their lives, once again.  We all are going about our business just picking at food, drinking coffee, listening to music and the mood was calm and serene.  It was wonderful. 
We all drove over to my brothers house and Kerry, my sister-in-law had the place decorated so beautifully.  She has a gift for interior decorating and is an extremely good hostess.  Her parents were there, who our family has gotten to know fairly well.  We had a wonderful Christmas dinner and talked about the recovery of our Dad.  Evening was falling upon us and we all wanted to get back to the hospital.  We now have learned that they moved him out of ICU and into a regular room.  More good news. 
We all drove to the hospital and went to see him.  The nurses, I'm sure, were shaking their heads because here walk in 5 kids and 5 adults all excited to wish Grandpa a Merry Christmas.  He wanted to be upright in a chair to visit with us all so the nurses had to scramble to get him out of bed and into the chair.  One of the nurses was about 8 months pregnant and imagining her doing her job with someone the size of my dad it's no wonder she called for back-up.  They got my dad situated and we all walked in and gave him hugs and kisses one by one.  He then wanted to introduce each and every one of us to his nursing crew and he passed that with flying colors.  Not only could he say our names but he said who all of the kids belonged to which took awhile but he did great.  The nurses were impressed as were we.  It was a huge feat. 
We stayed for awhile and by now he was tired, we were tired and the kids were restless.  We left him to get some sleep.  We all then drove back to my Aunts house for coffee and dessert and again, over 30 family members were there.  We gathered around a large table and told stories of my Mom and Marie growing up in Mananah and my Dad meeting my Mom and Marie meeting Fred.  It was so much fun listening to the stories of our family. We stayed late and laughed and ate and laughed some more.  It was a good day and we were all so thankful we were together.    We got back to Dads house.  I was exhausted. 
I haven't felt that way in over 2 years.  I hit the pillow and didn't move until the morning. 
The morning after Christmas Sharon and their 3 kids took off for Madison and it was a sad goodbye.  Jordan was crying, Zane was crying, everyone was sad to see them go.  They drove out of the driveway and it was quiet and my kids were extremely sad.  Andy and I headed up to the hospital while Jack and the girls stayed home and my friend Joe came over to say hello.  He stayed and they played wii and watched tv.  My great friend Julie, I've known her all of my life and she is very close with my family, came up to the hospital and we visited.  We now are talking with my dad about the future and what he needs to do.  At this point he still hasn't gotten up and walked on his own.  The time is coming though where he needs to do this.  Julie and I left and went back to the house and enjoyed some wine.  I heated up lasagna for dinner and Andy came home and we sat down and had a nice family dinner with Julie.  It was very pleasant to have her there.  She even took Jordan out shopping for an hour.  Jordan had a very bad day and her emotions finally broke down and she just couldn't handle it anymore.  Julie to the rescue.  Jordan LOVES Julie. 
As Jordan and Julie were out I had a little breakdown myself and started ranting and raving about leaving and how are we going to leave with everything so up in the air?  Jack was super worried about the weather and the drive and just getting back to our lives.  I knew we needed to make a plan but I was not wanting to get out of dodge so soon.  He was.  The three of us, Jack, Hannah and me started cleaning and organizing and within an hour we had that house spic and span.  We decided to leave the next morning. 
The next morning we woke and packed and had everything in the car by 10am.  We said our goodbye to Andy and took off for the hospital for one more visit with Dad.  He looked great and we were sad to leave but had to.  We stayed for about 45 minutes and said our goodbyes and left.  The leaving part was the worst because of course the guilt now kicks in and I can't help but feel it's too soon for us to be taking off.  Jack reminds me that I can fly back for visits when it comes time for that.  I remind him we don't have the money for me to just fly back for visits.   It's all so stressful. 
We decided to break up our drive in 2 days and I'm so glad we did.  We drove to York, NE in 8 hours and got a room at the Super 8.  A dump but cheap and we needed the sleep.  How I slept I don't know because the minute I hit the car after the hospital I fell asleep and slept pretty much the entire day in the car.  The next day Jack started driving and I slept another 4 hours pretty well in the car and then I drove the rest of the way home.  We pulled up to our driveway at 4:30 and home was a beautiful sight.  I forget the MN winter weather and how it does a number on you.  It's grey and gloomy and freezing cold.  You can go days or weeks without seeing the sun.  CO weather is the opposite.  It's usually bearable temperature wise and the sun shines all the time.  It was so refreshing to see the sun again. 
We're home now and I've been on the phone w/ my brothers.  Today, Dad gets released from the hospital and Andy has found him a transitional home to go to for his physical therapy.  We'll take this a day at a time and see how well he does with getting back on his feet.  Hopefully he'll be motivated to get moving and get those muscles in shape. 
We had many prayers answered and so many positive thoughts from family and friends and I want to thank everyone for your well wishes. 
This was a very big eye opener for me and it sure is getting me thinking about getting my affairs in order.  If you haven't done it yet, do it and don't wait another minute.  Planning is the key to getting through this kind of thing with minimum stress.  Living far away is what it is and there is nothing I can do about that.
Tonight it's back to work and I'm looking forward to getting my mind in another area.  Work will be just that. 
Time for a quick nap and hopefully I'll be raring to go.