Change of Plans

At church on Sunday there was a fair amount of hacking and coughing going on.  We decided it would be best to skip crowded church services with lots of kiddies.  Jeff's white blood cells are too few to contend with those little darlings with their sneeze spray and germs brought home from school.  December 26th will be a low Sunday; we'll go then.  Keith was supposed to come home this weekend but he has been doing nothing but sleeping and taking finals most of the week.  He is being treated for pertussis and I told him he couldn't come home until he isn't contagious.  He has to be out of the dorm by 3 p.m. Tuesday.  He should be well by then.  We love you, Keith, but you can't come home yet.

It had just occurred to me that we probably would have a quiet New Year's Eve and not make any plans when Kathy called to invite us to their house for dinner and game night.  She and Ken had decided that instead of a big bash on New Year's Eve, they wanted to invited Jeff, me and another friend for that evening.  Kathy suggested 8 p.m. and I told her it isn't likely Jeff will last until midnight.  She said, "How about 7 p.m.?"  We settled on 6 p.m. and although I feel a little guilty that we'll probably ditch them before The Ball falls in Times Square, I know they will understand.

Our Annual Christmas Caroling Party with the Milionis family was last night.  Annie called in the morning to very nicely, very politely un-invite us.  She said many of her guests were recovering from colds, Gerry was feeling like he was getting sick and she would feel terrible if Jeff caught anything from the carolers.  I told her we'd get in the car and track them down on their route to listen and join their singing.  She said they had already decided that if we couldn't come, they'd carol at our house.  I asked if it would be alright if we sang along since Jeff has been warming up his voice for the occasion.  Four carloads of carolers arrived around 8:30 p.m.  They sang one carol then they took our requests.  Jeff asked for "We Saw Three Ships" and I wanted "Here We Come A-Caroling."  Another tune or two and off they went, leaving us with hugs from Annie and Pete and a loaf of Annie's sausage bread, Jeff's favorite dish from the annual caroling party buffet.  The group never stayed at one house so long.  We couldn't make out their faces because the spotlights on our house illuminated us but made it impossible for us to see them.  We did, however, recognize some of the lovely voices.

It has been really nice having Jeff around more to help with the cookie baking.  He was stirring the oats and chips into our Oatmeal Scotchies when he suddenly stopped.  He was pale and looked surprised.  I asked what was wrong.  He said, "I have no blood in my arms."  I took over the job of stirring.  He had noticed that the blood drains from his arms quickly when he is working with his arms overhead but I guess he didn't expect to have that trouble while cookie-baking!  It is a similar feeling, he says, to mixing an 80-pound bag of cement.  So if any of you are lucky enough to taste our Oatmeal Scotchies this Christmas, I hope you appreciate the difficulty involved!