The Pre-Holiday New Tradition

Munchkin Boy says we may have hit upon a new tradition. Apparently waiting out the holiday season at my sister's house in Illinois is "easier" than waiting it out at home. Hubby, who stayed home due to work responsibilities, may not agree. When we pulled up in the driveway this evening he declared that he had decided we were never to leave home again.

It was a fun-filled four days with a full day of travel on either end. Especially relaxing for me as I have not been behind the wheel of a car for a week now. My time was well spent in the passenger seat and even in the back seat where a person has the opportunity to gaze far out into the passing fields and take a catnap or two.

We made a stop in St. Joe, Missouri to visit the Glore Psychiatric Museum. While at my sister's house we shopped and visited and watched movies and ate breakfast out every single day. We attempted to put together a jig saw puzzle. We drank tea and ate cookies and went roller skating... and visited the emergency room.

Munchkin Boy came home with his arm in a splint. He was robo-skating, a term he had to explain three times to the young man who was our nurse in the ER. This surprised me as the nurse was certainly young and had a certain look of hip about him which made me assume a term like robo-skating would be immediately apparent. Just shows you how little you can tell from a person's cover. "You know, skating as if one was a robot," Munchkin Boy had to enunciate and demonstrate to clarify.

I was glad for the explanation, as well, because from my view from across the rink I'm not sure that was how I would have interpreted it. I saw some rolling, some dancing, and then a fall that resulted in obvious pain. I did not realize exactly how much, however, and it was several hours before we took him in for x-rays, when at bedtime he was still wincing at the movement of his hand (as well as putting himself to bed at 8 PM which is... well, strange).

We have an appointment here at home the day after Christmas to determine if any damage beyond a sprain was done. The emergency room doctor didn't seem eager to comment either way, just ordered a splint and instructed him to keep it on until he could be seen by an orthopedic surgeon.

For the return trip I handed the girls an atlas and let them free range their way home. In only lengthened the expected time of travel by about 2 hours.

We have yet to make a solid plan (other than the trip to the doctor for Munchkin Boy's arm) for the coming week, but I am looking forward to some down days and some catch-up days and some time for finishing up projects from 2012.

**As a post script, the arm was not broken. When the splint was removed he had no pain. All healed quickly and easily.