officially christmas eve....

 just loaded some christmas music on my ipad/phone.  my favorite is the trans siberian orchestra playing christmas canon with the boys choir.  always amazing!  was an evening of listening to christmas music, enjoying the tree lights and baking some cookies late into the night.

 worked 3 nights and walked between shifts.  hit the bog twice and the dog park today.  on thursday blossom and i cruised the rovers run trail.

 rumors of temperatures warming up to 20 again by christmas.  i'm not holding my breath, but i am hopeful as well.  it's been 15-20 below on the way to/from work.  that is cold!!  rio managed the walks around the bog and the university lake...blossom doesn't suffer at all from the cold.

 had lovely patients and families the last 3 nights.  always seem to keep myself busy.  it just makes me feel happy to give those patients more than the basics.  it's the difference between doing a job and doing a job well.  it's something i've learned from being a nurse.  caring can go a long way.  people do better when they feel safe and taken care of.  my patients are generally happy to see me return.

 assignments accidently got switched on the third night.  after getting report on two different patients my co-worker and i decided to just switch back.  for me i know making any change to the assignment can jinx you. in the end i'm happy i took the chance. it was busy...but i had a great charge.  had to transfer one patient out quickly as i had another one on the way.  in the end the operating crew had to wait outside the room with the patient as the poor housekeeping crew worked hard to clean the room.

 one never gets any sort of report from operating room nurses i find.  this report was typical of my usual findings.  my apologies to or nurses everywhere, but really...he's got a tube here and  a tube there and oh can you hear what the anesthesiologist is saying on the other side of the room?  no.  one of the few things she told me was the patient spoke no english...turned out to be incorrect.  i turned to the computer for report and got along fine.  through all the madness another co-worker apparently saw that i had set my stethescope on the counter and helped herself to it for several hours without letting me know.  i was begining to think i'd gone mad as i remembered getting the stethescope out right before that...where could it have gone??  eventually, i saw it hanging around her neck as if it was hers...eye roll here.

 a tree on rovers run with a few christmas baubles on it.  always so pretty in the winter.

 actually got my hair curled before work yesterday.  loads of compliments...which is cool as that like never happens.  i'm feeling a bit spoiled this year.  christmas can be feast of famine.  you never know.  nice to be remembered and have felt quite spoiled like i say.  i guess we all deserve a bit of spoiling from time to time.

 suspect i'll be one for the monday walk tomorrow.  didn't really grasp that it was christmas eve.  the season goes so fast.  i'm sure i'll extend it a bit with the tree lights and music.  that is usually my favorite part...so relaxing.

 on to john denver and the muppets christmas cd.  i will have to watch the muppet christmas carol tomorrow night.  another favorite.

 these are bog shots.

 this was on solstice.  tough to get motivated in the sub zero temps, but blossom is a great motivator for me.

 christmas was always the big party growing up.  relatives came over for the big turkey dinner and festivities. those included the annual reading of the baker letter.  the bakers were relatives whose letter was a bit boastful of their years happenings.  my uncle would read the letter with commentary and everyone would laugh.  that doesn't sound very nice...but there it is...we laughed! we also did an annual pinata. filling of a huge mason jar thing with cookies and the eating of cookies that goes with that.

 the christmas tree was the big excitement.  clean the house and wait for dad to decide the price of trees may have come down low enough for a bargain.  my mother trying to get the tree earlier as she liked us to put those old lead tinsel on one by one.  it did look pretty, but it may be why i'm only a nurse and not a doctor...haha...lead exposure.  the bargain tree came off the roof of the car and was immediately swept away to the garage by my father.  as my mother ached to get started on decoration my dad worked away in his shop redesigning the tree.  he's lop off a branch here, drill a hole there and glue the lopped off branch in.  eventually we had a designer tree that anyone could be proud of.

 took me awhile, being the youngest, to figure out the whole santa thing. i remember waking up to see older siblings playing the part of elves hauling gifts to down to the tree.  it was always loaded up in the morning. once you figured out the santa thing you were made an elf.  7 kids is a lot of work for two parents.  there was always a big family gift.  some i recall...pool table, swing set, pong and a cool arcade game one year.  we always had to wait for the oldest 3 teenagers to get out of bed christmas morning.  the four youngest were forever impatient at their sleeping in christmas morning.  we were allowed stockings until they joined in.

 one year my mom got me the steve martin record, "wild and crazy" i think it is.  we all enjoyed it though i'm not sure my parents thought it appropriate once they'd heard it.  his humor seems pretty tame now compared to some.

 the christmas tree is lit up at university lake.  so pretty.

 enjoy your christmas eve wherever you are and whoever you are with.

 spent an evening with friends tonight.  only pulled the camera out a few times.  shannon, gails daughter, was in town with her husband and their dog beau.  we got to talk dogs...

 mac took the ice balloons to another level..impressive.  he put holes in the frozen ice balls balloons and then put colored led lights inside...so pretty!

guess i shall attempt to turn in for the night.  i'm sure i'll be having a busy day tomorrow.  dog walk, calls to family, dinner with friends...then back to work for 3 more starting christmas day night.  the place is busy everywhere so i'll  be working it all no doubt. merry christmas eve....