I just realized I haven’t posted a follow-up on Amanda’s biopsy. If you follow us on the socials, you know we got good news because I posted there and forgot to post anything here, sorry! It was around lunch that I figured we might hear something on Friday, but we still hadn’t heard from Adrienne, our coordinator, when I dropped Amanda off at dialysis at two in the afternoon. We hadn’t even talked about it to each other either. I headed to Brentwood after that. I had an appointment with my barber; I found a really good one here. The beard was starting to look a little homelessish! After I got out of that appointment around three, I was antsy, so I called Amanda, but she was on the phone with Adrienne. All good news, the results came back as 1R. That is technically a mild rejection status, but it is widely considered no rejection and equal to zero at most centers.
We also got good news on follow-up visits. There wouldn’t be any for 5-6 weeks, nor another biopsy until then. I know what you may be thinking here: we could go back to Texas for Christmas, right? However, months ago, even if they had allowed us to leave for Christmas, we decided we weren’t going to try for it. There’s just too much going on with Amanda’s rehab, PT, and dialysis. We are home right now, anyway. Tennessee is home until we are all settled back in Texas for a stint at least. We had always talked about once my parents were gone, we’d pack the pups up and head out for Christmas to different spots each year. Last year was the first without my parents, and we spent it in the hospital, not quite what we had in mind when we had envisioned a traveling Christmas!
I’ve joked that the song Tennessee Christmas is going to have a different meaning this year! We are trying to make the most of our Christmas here in Tennessee, though. I got tickets weeks ago for King and Country Drummer Boy Christmas Tour for this coming Tuesday night. I also picked up some reasonable tickets to a Michael W Smith and Riley Clemmons Christmas tour with a 50-piece orchestra and a 120-member choir for the Sunday before Christmas. These shows are on opposite ends of the Holiday music spectrum. Saturday night, we went to a neighbor’s Christmas party at Bev’s place. If you remember back a bit, I looked at a basement apartment five houses down from Bev’s. So, we where almost neighbors, and kind of qualified for the party! We have a church young adults’ Christmas party this coming Friday. The following Monday, we have some friends of friends who are going to take us out for a night in Franklin for dinner and a Christmas lights drive-through tour. Did I mention we were trying to make the most of the holiday season!
Today we got some Christmas pictures taken by Leann’s son-in-law. They don’t live too far away, and their basement is set up for mini holiday photo shoots. I also talked Bev into coming over later this week to take some photos of us as a family, with Tank, in front of our Christmas tree. Though it didn’t take much talking her into it, the girl loves Tank; she will inevitably end up on the floor cuddling him every time she’s over! So if we have your address, which may be sketchy with the move and sending cards out from a hospital room last year, be on the lookout for a Christmas card. Don’t forget to send us a card, either!
We’ve been asked a ton if we have anyone to spend Christmas with. We’re cool by ourselves, as I mentioned; that’s been our plan for Christmas for quite some time. At least we are already all decorated and don’t have to pack decorations or pack at all for that matter. We may not have a white Christmas, but it’ll feel more like Christmas here with the colder weather. This morning it was 14 with a wind chill of 1. Amanda was worried she was going to freeze! I wasn’t too bothered; a winter in Iowa hardened me a bit!
Though we are ok with a solo Christmas, we are excited that we will likely have friends coming up to stay with us, the Roses, who we vacationed with last February in Pagosa Springs, Colorado. They aren’t ahead-of-time planners like we are, and they fly way more by the seat of their pants. So, who knows when we’ll get the confirmation that they’ll be coming, probably a couple of days before they leave! Their son Ryder, who was a student of mine and one we’d claim as our own, has been wanting to come up to see us, and he has time off work around the holidays. I mentioned that his parents hadn’t decided for sure yet, but he was still pretty determined to come up anyway. I held the “You better see your mama for Christmas” talk till another phone call! We also got an invite to lunch on Christmas Day by the interim pastor and his wife at the church we attend. They are our age and have been married a bit without kids; they do have a furry child, though. We haven’t gotten to hang out with them, but I imagine the common ground would make us get along well.
Amanda has finished the house’s Christmas decorations, including our entry and the tree. She always has an insane amount of time for tree decorating. She’ll spend hours alone on the tree, then come the sit-and-look-at-it phase. After sitting in her chair, she’ll look at it, then move an ornament or two, sit a little longer, then move another ornament or two. This repeats for days until she moves one last ornament, then happy-claps in front, saying, “It’s petty.” That’s usually the indicator that no more ornament moving will happen! We reached that point sometime last week.
The tree, as usual, is gorgeous. She also did great on the entry with a thrifted banner that we spruced up and a door basket instead of a wreath. We still have a wreath on our porch door, though. I may be partial, but I’m pretty sure we have the best entryway and tree in the apartment complex! We’d have more trees if what little expendable funds we had weren’t allocated toward Christmas concerts! I had a total of four trees set up when she got out of the hospital after the first transplant in our one-bedroom hotel room. I also had friends and followers send us ornaments to decorate with. Those things are expensive when you decorate a tree with as many as Amanda does! Now thinking of it, the two concerts we are going to are way cheaper than multiple trees with ornaments! I think we had six in the house the year before last, our last Christmas at our Texas home!
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