Week Thirty-four - Sing We All of Christmas......

Sing we all Noel!

That's the song in my head tonight.  I sang Babygirl to bed with "O Come All Ye Faithful" a couple of hours ago while the machine hit an alarm I've never seen before ("check to see if heater bag is on the heater and check if heater bag clamp is closed").  Odd one to get when the machine has ALREADY  been pulling fluid from that bag for five minutes, but hey, I checked, the machine believed me and it's been quiet since.

So how are we all doing in our Christmas preparations?  We have our very obese Christmas tree up.  Usually our Nativity set goes up before we have the tree decorated, and setting that up is a family event.  This year I wasn't able to manage it, and my middle daughter set it up on her own (nice job, sweetie!) and got all the empty decoration storage bins out of the dining room where they had been sitting unattended for a week.  There are no outside decorations up.  And our mantle could use a string of lights.  I needed that one to replace a tree set and haven't had the time to get another.

And as for Christmas shopping?  Well, I missed Black Friday.  And I haven't really done anything else.  What I do have, I have wrapped.  But I'm starting to feel a bit pressured - a lot to do, not much money to do it with, and less time.

The bills are starting to pile up.  We haven't heard from Social Security on our Medicare appeal.  I need to get on the phone and talk to them, but tomorrow is already so booked I hardly know what to do first.  And no matter what else I choose to do, I have to be home in time to put the dialysis machine together. I keep asking people to be patient, but you know in your gut that sooner or later you'll owe someone so much that they'll just say, "Hey, we can't treat your kid unless you pay."  And the dialysis bill is the big one - we're up to nearly $5000 and it's being contested by our insurance company.

I despise the idea of using a credit card for either Christmas spending OR for medical bills.  And my paycheck is already showing the 20% cut I had to agree to this year to balance out what I know I am not going to make because of my illness.

"Peace on earth, and good will toward men."

Peace sounds good.  Trust, better.  Faith, great.  Hope?  Wishful thinking some days.

DeeDee