New Year 2011

Well, we had planned on having a quiet New Year's celebration, but life always has it's moments.  The girls decided that they were going to call our bluff.  They refused to get everything ready so we could leave to go to Cyn and Josh's house, and when we tried the, "Well, we don't HAVE to go...," the girls decided to say, "No!  You'll take us anyway."  So, I called Cyn and told her that we weren't going to make it, and we prepared to celebrate New Year's at home.  


This was a very different celebration since we no longer have television.  While I don't necessarily miss having the Boob Tube, it was weird to try to get to midnight without Dick Clark's Rockin New Year's Celebration and not watching the ball drop.  We tried to stream it online, but we bottomed out.


To add to the despair of the evening, I received a text message from Cyn informing me that it was a good thing we didn't show up as she fell and broke her back.  I was stunned!  There had to be a mistake, but in the subsequent hours of texting, I found that she had, indeed, broken her back.  When Cyn was trying to put Christmas decorations back in her attic, she fell off the ladder and fell 10 feet onto the ladder.  She crushed her L1, and it took some time to determine if she would be paralized - which she is not, and what the doctors were going to do to help her.


I drove down New Year's Day after spending the evening on the phone with another childhood friend, Michael Harris, and asking him a ton of questions as he is an orthopedic surgeon.  I went straight to the hospital and was devastated to see my long time friend suffering in a hospital bed.  Her husband, another friend from high school, Josh, was sitting their with Leena, their 6-year-old and I could tell he was trying to hold himself together.  I was ecstatic to learn that she had regained feeling during the night.  I took Leena back to the house so Josh could have time with his wife after Cyn and I made arrangements for me to take both of the children home with me.


Josh wanted another night with his children, so I stayed overnight, helped him take both of the children to the hospital to see their mother and say good bye, and then I headed back home with them and all of their toys.  I barely made it back up the Cajon Pass before they closed it down for snow.  I was really glad to be home and was completely exhausted.  


Ken, the girls and I had a great time bringing in the New Year together as a family, and yet we were reminded, again, how fragile life is by our friend getting hurt and altering her life.  We have many hopes for 2011, and we will continue to work to be the best family and best people we can be.