Secondly I would like to apologise for not wishing you all a wonderful Christmas, but the truth is everything went pear shaped for us here just before the holidays and I never got the chance to post on my blog as planned.
I mentioned in one of my previous posts that I was going to the UK on the 14th December to meet up with my mum and my brother John and travel back with them to Spain on the 15th for them to spend Christmas and the New Year with us. The journey to the UK was uneventful and although we had a slight delay on the way back to Malaga, all went well and we arrived home to my place at about lunchtime.
We had lunch and chatted for the afternoon, I think, if I remember rightly, my mum started to knit a woolly hat for one of my dolls. Then my mum went to my friends place (she was away and offered my family her place to stay in as since moving we haven't a lot of room), just a minutes walk away, to unpack.
A little while later my brother came running back to tell me that my mum had fallen over and he couldn't get her up. I ran with him back to my mum and she had fallen backwards down a small step......
The ambulance came and took her to hospital, she was in a lot of pain and having a panic attack because of this pain.
To cut a long story short, my 83 year old mum was hospitalised with a broken hip and was operated on the following day. Here in Spain, you're more or less expected to stay in the hospital 24/7 with your person, so I slept in the chair next to her bed for four nights. We went home on the 19th and from that date on I looked after my mum at home, she was encouraged to walk using a walking frame, and has been doing really well, thank goodness.
My mum needed a lot of help at first, especially with her personal care, and I stayed with her at my friends place whilst my brother stayed with Brian and the dogs at ours. My brother John has learning disabilities so he needs a certain amount of supervision too.
Christmas Day was nice though, if hard work. We had our dinner outside on our deck as it was such a lovely day. I didn't get time to wrap the presents until late on Christmas Eve, the Christmas cards remained in the box, the proper linen napkins and table cloth remained elusive and we had to resort to a paper tablecloth and paper napkins....the prawns for my seafood starter were uncooked so we couldn't eat those, and I had to substitute them for some crab sticks that were in my fridge that were barely in date.....and it wasn't until halfway through lunch that I realised I'd forgotten to put glasses on the table and wine in the fridge...but apart from that the food tasted good and there was plenty of it!!!!
After Christmas mum's insurance company sent a nurse from the UK to travel back with her to her home on the 3rd January, I had planned to go with her for a few days but decided to stay for just over a week so that I could help her in her home as well as get a care plan in place for when I came back home to Spain.
I arrived home last Saturday, 11th January, and slept in my own bed, with my husband for the first time in almost a month! I have never appreciated my own bed so much! 😊
In the meantime my mum has a carer visiting each morning and a physiotherapist has been each day this week to help her to regain a good level of mobility. She seems to be doing well and hopefully when I return to the UK again next month to visit her, she will be able to go back upstairs in her house as so far she has had to remain downstairs.
So today I got back to my Christmas present doll from my husband Brian. She is a Zwergnase Junior Wentje and she is 55cm tall. Wentje is one of a limited edition of 50 dolls worldwide, she is handpainted and has a human hair wig. I haven't had time to sew her anything yet but hope to do so soon.
Here are a few photos of her. I think she is one of those dolls that really benefits from being photographed in natural light as she looked quite plain inside my doll room, but I think she came more alive when I took her outside this evening just as the sun was starting to set.
So there you have our Christmas. My mum falling was a horrible end to what had already been a really awful year. I am hoping that 2020 will be better for all of us. I'm very glad to see the back of 2019 to be honest and am going into this new year with a positive attitude.
I hope 2020 is great for all of you. Thank you for continuing to visit my blog, please keep coming and commenting as I really appreciate it.
Big hugs to all of you
Sharon xxx