December - A Look Ahead

We’re looking forward to things settling down for us this month. November was quite busy. Medical appointments were on our calendar every weekday except for Thanksgiving. Mr. Jim has now completed 23 of 28 radiation treatments. He will finish up this coming Friday. He’s got a follow-up visit with the surgeon’s office this month, and then he is footloose and fancy-free for the rest of December! The last chemo treatment was in mid-November, and the medicine is out of his system now, greatly benefiting his appetite. He’s done very well during the post-surgical treatment with a minimum of side effects. I’m very proud of his tenacity and good humor throughout the whole ordeal. The next step will be a CAT scan and follow-up visit with his chemo doctor in mid-January.

A wintery treat of snow arrived early last week. It only lasted a couple of hours, but it was pretty enough for me to walk down the block and take a photo of a nearby row of cedar trees. We’d love for our area to get a few snowstorms this year, as long as they are the friendly type with no power outages!

We decided to get a jump on Christmas decorations this year. And we ended up keeping it simple, with a few displays throughout the cottage and only tabletop trees. So, once again, we opted to not to put up a big tree with lights. It sure does save us a lot of trouble and effort getting Christmas boxes down the stairs from the second floor storage room.

We’re enjoying the decorations early because we’ve scheduled a little trip during Christmas season! With our schedule now free and blessings from the doctors, we’re taking a road trip to Charleston, South Carolina, and Asheville, North Carolina. It’s time for a reward, don’t you think? We’ve been to Charleston before, but it was long before we had digital cameras. It will be grand to see the old architecture again and try out some of the latest restaurants. We’ll be staying at the famous Two Meeting Street Inn, located near the Charleston Battery in the old city. In Asheville, we’ll be staying at the elegant Inn on Biltmore Estate and dining there on Christmas eve and Christmas day. Our travel year didn’t turn out the way we originally planned, but we’re determined to close out 2013 in style.

The monthly photo challenge will be in two weeks on December 14th. The theme is “Let There Be Light.” If you are interested in joining the challenge this month, please check out the background information HERE.

Last but not least, there is a BIG occasion happening this month. In just a few more posts, I will celebrate my 1000th post! I will have a little giveaway of photo calendars and note cards. So stay tuned for that.

I hope that everyone has a spectacular month, filled with the magic of Christmas!