Tis the Season!

Christmas has always been a very exciting time for Caitlin. She worked hard to make it extra special for so many others by adopting children in a family from my school and even standing out in the freezing cold to pass out gift bags of toiletries to homeless people. That is to say nothing of how special she made Christmas for Michael and I every year. Yesterday as I went out for my first Christmas shopping,it hit me very hard about how much I miss doing so many of the things Caitlin and I have traditionally done together at Christmas. Thankfully, Dagmar, my dear friend, came with me so I was able to hold myself together in one piece. One of our usual silly things to do was to ask Sadie, our dog, if she wanted to go shopping. She would immediately run to the back door to get in the car. We always took her with us and she would wait patiently in the car as we ran in and out of stores. We would just giggle at how much Sadie was one of the girls!
So, in creating different Christmas memories for this year, my friend and Mal's mom, Deb, put a large paper tree on the wall of Caitlin's hospital room and wants to have everyone who comes to visit make an ornament to tape on the tree. I would like to add that anyone can make a paper ornament at home, drop it by and visit for a few minutes in the evening, or send it to Caitlin at the hospital and we will hang it up on her tree. The hospital address is St. Mary's Regional Medical Center, 235 West 6th Street, Room 406, Reno, Nevada 89503. We want to fill that tree up with good cheer to get Caitlin through the holidays!
Caitlin was up in the wheelchair today helping to hand letters to Deb as she was taping them on the wall. Deb would make a great PT because she was so positive and yet still demanded that Caitlin stretch that left arm higher and higher. Caitlin was laughing with Deb at their antics. We all missed Mal's participation in this decorating event but she has gotten a yucky cold that is going around town. Terry Christensen visited and immediately got put to work. Little did she know how much fun she would have! Caitlin wrote her name and the year on her ornament which is a great accomplishment for this weekend to celebrate and rejoice in!
Michael hooked up a brand new Wii for Caitlin today. They attempted to play the games that came with the Wii but they seemed to require too much movement. They were the tennis and other sports games. Michael has been doing research on how successful using the Wii is in stroke recovery. I know that it will be helpful to Caitlin as time goes on.
I think there is so much to focus on each day but the hardest is getting Caitlin to eat and drink enough. Her dad, Aunt Christine, and I have been trying our best but it is difficult when your best isn't good enough. There is talk of Caitlin's catheter coming out tomorrow and the possibility of taking the feeding tube out on a trial to see if Caitlin would get hungry enough to actually eat more than a half cup of food at one sitting. It would be so nice to see Caitlin's beautiful face without her "elephant trunk"! We are all trying to KEEP ON KEEPIN' ON!