Making Christmas Part 1

       It is that time of year again, when we start the prep work to make Christmas happen. It is a big production in our family.  Usually, this time of year, I am busy in the kitchen making goodies but I cannot this year, I cannot put stuff in or take it out of oven, so that won’t be happening.  It is also usually the time I sit with our contact list and write out Christmas cards, but since I cannot write anymore, this will not be happening either. Both of these are symptoms of MSA, loss of balance and writing. Luckily, everyone in our family loves Christmas as much as I do, so we are going to one of my other sister’s to start it off.

     My sister, whom lives by the St. Laurent mall, came and we got the bus out to the "Workshop" – which was at my sister’s in Barrhaven. It was our first time taking the bus there and we had to transfer. We missed the connection, so it took us a lot longer to get there. When we finally did arrive (two hours later), I was so cold. It is another symptom of the MSA, bad circulation. So, when we arrived, I was putting extra clothes on instead of taking them off.

     Now that we had arrived at the workshop, it was time toget to work. We had peanut butter cups to make, chocolates and coconut balls. Amazing how long it takes me to do things now and also the things that are repetitious give me problems. MSA has affected my motor skills, which I use for tasks like rolling the coconut balls. My sister's grand kids arrived and wanted to help with the chocolates. It amazes me how tender, conscientious and courteous they can be. The grand daughter always was checking on me. She would open the freezer without me having to ask and even took my hand to help me. The children were so attentive and without judgement, if only we could all be more like this.

     It was my second oldest sister’s birthday coming up this month as well, so my other sister wanted to make a special cake. She makes amazing cakes! Martha Stewart has nothing on her. My sister had made a cake but it didn’t rise, so she threw it out and made another that didn’t rise either, so my brother-in-law who was at the store bought some baking soda, which we thought was the problem. We come to find out that that afternoon when organizing the kitchen she had mixed up the baking soda and baking powder, and that was the reason the cake wasn’t rising.  We had a good laugh and the birthday girl still got birthday cake, store bought, but a lesser penalty than Martha Stewart.




Making Christmas Part 2 comig up....