Author: Jen Rios

When I awoke with this afternoon, the work that my Mom and I do to get me out of bed is immensely involved to say the least!

Once I am ready to get out of my room when I’m all situated and in my chair, my Mom will walk to the dining room and turn the light on. After she does that, I can turn my bedroom light off. It’s like that now because my vision is fading fast.

After my Mom turns the light on, she will go to the kitchen sink to soap up the washcloth to help me wash my hands. Well, this morning I forgot that Sean put the tree up yesterday and fluffed and everything!

I usually stop my chair exactly where the Christmas tree is for my Mom to help me wash my hands. Well, today was different as soon as I looked up when I rolled into the living room, I had totally forgotten that Sean put the tree up and it startled me. I said audibly, “Oh hi.”

I smiled to myself because I absolutely LOVE my tree!!! Today was a low-key day and I’m not sure when Phase 2 will commence yet…

Today, I had to wake up early. I hate, absolutely HATE waking up to an alarm! But this was necessary because I was getting a new washer and dryer today. Between 10:30 and 2:30 so I got out of bed at 9 o’clock.

Cleveland knocked on my door at 10 o’clock! I was excited and my Mom put Leia in her cage. He came in and started working on my washer and dryer and I could hear him doing stuff.

And then things started moving so fast! A second young man came to move my washer and dryer out of the house. They just strapped both the washer and dryer to their waist and carried them out together.

As they were bringing in the new washer and dryer, I called to them as they were almost in my room, “Best Christmas present ever!” and I thanked them. They put them on the lawn and my brother took them to be repurposed:

They had it all hooked up in ‘two shakes,’ and then Sean came over and put my Christmas tree up finally:

He put the tree up by himself and fluffed it. My Mom thought that she would always do that but it seems like Sean is starting to do it himself. He knows what to do!!!

My Christmas tree is 19 years old now. Sean was four years old and we were living in our first apartment when I bought it. I went with my Mom and called the building manager (we were friends) to see how tall the ceilings were in the apartment buildings.

He told me that they were 8 feet tall and I bought a 7 1/2 foot tree. It cost me $500!!! That was SO, SO, SO expensive for me at that point, but I LOVE my tree!!! even if we don’t put ornaments on this year, I still love it!

When Sean left today, he said that we will do Phase 2 tomorrow.

so, I’m continuing doing my puzzles as my Mom naps, and I chose a puzzle that reminded me of the chalet in Last Christmas:

There was another puzzle right next to it so I had to do it, but I think this one was a little more tricky!:

It was a whole bunch of white, but I focus on the shape of the puzzle pieces, so I finished them tricky as they were!!!

I realized this late last night, which was really this morning, it is three weeks until I will have had MS for 24 years. I told that to my Mom last night before we went to sleep and I cried a lot more than I thought I would!!!

I pillaged today and I will on the 28th as well:

I never would have expected 24 years of MS to look how it looks now… #MSsucks!!!… 😒😒😒…

Well, I got all excited that Christmas puzzles were available to do in my app. I had to purchase them because they didn’t have good christmasy, or winter scenes:

I buy these collections for 4000 points. It’s 10 puzzles with the same theme. I do these puzzles because it helps with my hand-eye coordination which, at this point is quite suspect!

While I am puzzling,’ my Mom tells me that I look like I am doing the most important thing in the world. I tell her that I am. I am working on my hand-eye coordination. And that’s really difficult now! I always loved doing puzzles, but now that I can’t control my hands that well, doing it on my phone is an acceptable replacement. At least that’s what I tell myself. Here are some of my winter puzzles that I’ve finished so far:

I completed this one and texted it to Sean and told him to, “Hand me another mallow.” Which is an inside joke from a barbecue in my brother’s house when he was like 10.

This puzzle of the owl, is technically NOT Christmasy to me, but it is 100% Labyrinth!!! Now that I have a picture of it, I think that I will send it to my cousinT, Shannon, we LOVE Labyrinth!!!

I chose these presents because I thought they looked so pretty and once I did giveaway a gold paper wrapped present, but I accented it with a green ribbon.

I was actually surprised at how difficult this puzzle was, but I sent it to Sean because I want them to tell me how many points are on it.

So now, I will crank up my Christmas tunes, and do some more puzzlin’ because my Mom is still napping.

This evening, I was by myself, so I decided to watch a movie from my youth:

I have seen this many movie since my youth! I can’t even tell you how many times I saw it every single year! As I was watching today, I was taken back to my Parents’ living room with the green carpet! My Mom has hardwood for now, as do I. My brother did it for us!

it is still just how I remember it, even the three guys singing! I was not prepared for was how emotional I got at the very end!:

it is dusk, and he needed to sell his donkey before he goes back home. They are both dejected, and then Joseph shows up and asks about the donkey. The little boy was told to sell him for one piece of silver, which is all that Joseph can offer.

I lost it at the ending scene! After seeing the auctioneer make fun of him! This is such a great movie and I found it on Disney+! 25 minutes long and I really liked it!!! I really liked the singing!!! “Clink, clink. Clank, clank…” 😂😂😂😂😂