Great Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone!

We had a phenomenal Christmas in Toronto. A few days ago, we were able to upgrade our accommodations. We now have a full apartment with a nice king-bed bedroom and walk in closet. Because of the upgrade, we had a great living space to do Christmas with the whole family.

We all (Steve, Gail, mom, Becky, James, Chel and I) met up at our new apartment at around 9am and we opened all our gifts together. It was a great Christmas. It was tough knowing that dad was all alone in the early morning, but we had plans to visit him as soon as we were done.

After opening all our wonderful gifts, Steve made us breakfast - so good! We all enjoyed each others company and had a great Christmas breakfast.

As soon as we were done, we grabbed our gifts for dad and headed to the hospital. Dad was so happy to see us! He's pretty emotional. "Where have you guys been?!?"

We moved him to a visitors lounge and spent a few hours with dad and watched him open his gifts. Chel and I got him a Harley Davidson sweater from Las Vegas. "Las Vegas!?!?! How did you do that!?" Apparently my dad had completely forgotten that Chel and I had just been to Las Vegas... and that wasn't the only thing he had forgotten.

While he was opening the gift wrap, he stopped, gripping the gift wrap in his right hand. He sat back and said, "See... now I'm confused. Once I unwrap the gift, isn't the wrapping supposed to just disappear?"

My dad had no idea what to do with garbage. Afterwards, he was tossing his orange peals on the ground, and his pill cups on the ground. Each time, I'd pick up after him and he's say, "See... I keep forgetting!"

Dad's confusion is pretty heavy. But its a normal part of recovery. He'll probably be like this for a few weeks still.

He's been doing a few pretty hilarious things...

He told the nurses and my mom that when Chelsea and I get pregnant (?? not sure why my dad thinks this is happening any time soon ??), my mom is also going to get pregnant and we're "going to go through this thing together".

My dad randomly called a loved one and told them on the phone, "You just wait! Something amazing is going to happen in so-and-so's honour! You just wait! You won't believe it!"

When we asked dad about the phone call he had made, his response was, "Yep - tummy tits".

When I originally visited dad for the first time after the surgery, apparently to him I was blue. Completely blue.

Directly in front of my dad's bed, there was a door labelled 10-2 - 10th floor, stair case 2. But all the door said was 10-2. My dad thought that at 10 to 2 (1:50pm), he was going to have to come get me through that door.

I can't remember anymore stories - but they were pretty funny... my dad will think they are funny when he's better.

Anyway, my dad did take a pretty bad fall before we got to the hospital. It shook him up pretty good. He's afraid of walking now. But I keep telling him he has to overcome his fear and keep trying to get better. It isn't going to do him any good to just sleep all day.

After visiting with dad, we headed back to the hotel for a chill afternoon with the family while Steve made a crazy awesome turkey dinner. Dinner was fabulous! So great!

All in all, great Christmas!