Wednesday morning we drove up to Carmel to go back to the doctor that we transferred David's care to here in Indiana, and he took the pins out of David's wrists after 9 1/2 weeks. It was definitely not a very comfortable experience. I chose not to watch, but I did put my phone up to take a video for Mike. I have yet to watch the video yet, though, and don't know that I ever will.
David said he went from zero pain to quite a bit of pain the rest of the day, like his arms just ached and it hurt to do pretty much everything he'd gotten accustomed to being able to do at this point. So he still wore the splints all day for protection and comfort.
Today he started physical therapy with motions that involve the wrists and rotation of the forearms.
After getting the pins out, we left the doctor and kept on driving north up to Claypool, IN to make a special stop.
Last time we were here, the gravestone had not come yet.
After that stop, we drove on to Warsaw to celebrate Christmas as a family and to stay the night with Mike's mom in her new house. It's much smaller than her old house, but we all fit and didn't fall over on top of each other. It will be much easier when it's not winter, though.
We played a lot of games together, and that was a lot of fun. Our family loves and plays games A LOT, so it was fun getting the kids to play with us and then to play cards with the adults till midnight and beyond.
We taught Dane and Reese how to play SORRY, a game that David and I played a ton when he was little. I think we have like 3 or 4 different versions of it in storage.
I love how a simple deck of cards can draw us all together and keep us playing, laughing, (and maybe yelling or mumbling under our breath) for hours on end.
Reese and Chrissy playing Connect Four.
Mike, David, and I playing Bibleopoly (at home the night before we went to Warsaw) that Chrissy and the boys contributed to our future game room (guest room, office, library, craft room, etc.)
Present time.
This was a panoramic picture, so don't let it deceive you to think it's a really big room.
In the last 20 years, I can probably count on one hand the times we've all been together at Christmastime. After the last two years that my mother-in-law has had, this was a gift she did not take for granted this year.
David doing his thing, being the "cat whisperer". This little kitty sure did like him.
If Mike and Matt and Mark are ever together at Christmas, they just have to make fudge. They sure had a blast making it together this year.
Their peanut butter fudge turned out amazing!
Matt's holding a piece of cheese here, so it must have been when they were making mac n cheese.
All the cousins (except for Juan David) eating Christmas dinner
(Ham, mac n cheese, broccoli salad, corn casserole, rolls, and dirt pudding for dessert).
The only girl grandchild, my only Alspaugh niece. Love her.
I'm so thankful to be able to be in her life now and to see her more often. I look forward to lots more visits with her.
We stayed the night, got up and had breakfast together, played a few more games, had leftovers for lunch, and then we headed back to Columbus. Mike, David, and I stopped to spend some Christmas money on the way home. I got some cute vests and a much needed new winter coat. A $200 coat on sale for $45! 
A quick stop for dinner at Jaggers (first time for me) back in Columbus before we got home.
Now that David is in therapy, learning how to assume independence again, we're trying to soak up as much time as we have left with him here before he heads back to school soon.
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