i've lost the bounce in my step

This past weekend we took a trip to Canada to visit my mom's side of the family. This was the first year in many years that the entire family was together. Considering everything that has been happening in the past months with Oma and Opa's health, it was very good to have everyone together again. We took a much needed family picture, which is probably the last family picture we will have with both Oma and Opa in it.

Oma is hanging in there, she is not in any pain right now which is great, but she is not getting any better either. She is breathing harder when she does little things, but she is still fighting. She cruises right along with her walker, and can still whip out the knitting needles for little fixes. My mom and aunt accompanied her and Opa to a wedding anniversary party for Oma's sister on Saturday night. Oma kept saying they had to leave because my mom had to get to bed because of our drive home the next day. She didn't want to admit that she wanted to leave too, and wanted to get to bed herself.

Opa is doing fairly well too. He does have some trouble sleeping, okay a lot of trouble. They go to bed around 6:30pm and he only gets about 4 hours of sleep a night, and not all in a row. Part of me thinks if he wouldn't go to bed so early he may be able to sleep better. He has been taken some perscription sleeping meds, and I think those have been helping. Opa has lost a lot of wieght, and is very thin. The real test to how Opa is doing, is when you ask him how he is doing. In the past he would always cheerfully say, "I still have a bounce in my step" Not anymore. Now is answer is, "I've lost the bounce in my step" This is so heart breaking to me. I cannot imagine the physcial and emotional pain he is going through watching his spouse suffer.

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On a more positive note. We were able to celebrate Christmas as a whole family. We played a grab-gift game, which was so much fun. We all spend about $10-$15 on a gift, each open a seperate gift, and once all the gifts are open, the real fun begins. We set the timer for 7 minutes and pull out 2 pairs of dice, we pass the dice around and when someone rolls doubles or a 7 they have to trade their gift with someone else (even if they really want what they already have {a way around that is to just trade with your spouse, because then the gift stays in your family})

The best was when my aunt opened a gift of snowman paper plates, paper cups, and napkins, and my cousin exclaimed, "Who forgot?!" Which no one did forget, the gift was from my mom. Seriously, who buys paper products as a christmas gift? Well she felt really bad and ended up keeping it for herself.

I will post pictures later today.....