Happy Times....Sad Times

We have had a great time spending the holiday at home with our families. On Christmas Eve we went to our daughter Elizabeth and her husband Sean's house. Our son Nicholas and his girlfriend Bridget were also there. The table was filled with delicious food and wine. We all  had a really great time together. A big thanks to them for hosting this years festivities. On Christmas day we went to my brother Mark and his wife Diane's house where they have been doing the dinner for a few years now. All the rest of my family that was in town met there. As always, the food was great. My son says it the best meal of the year. Thanks to them for having us over.
Since being back  home we have found out that my Mom has lost alot of her vision due to macular degeneration.
She seems to be handling it okay.
Bob's 95 year old grandmother passed away. It's very sad for all of her family who will miss her, but its incredible that she lived  independent in her own apartment until the end.
Our dog Brady got himself into some chocolate. Now chocolate is very toxic in dogs depending on the size of the dog, how much was eaten and what kind of chocolate it was. While we were away for a couple of hours he found a bag of chocolate that I was putting together for a family swap. He ate a whole box of assorted chocolate and a large bar of dark chocolate (which was the worst kind). I called the vet immediately and was told to make him get rid of as much of it as we could.(I won't go in to detail as how we had to do that.) After that we drove him to the vet where they gave him charcoal to absorb the toxins and also put him on an IV to help flush out his system. We left him there until they closed at 8:00pm. They felt with his rapid heart beat and a temperature that he developed we should bring him  to the animal hospital for overnight monitoring and to continue on the IV. We picked him up the following afternoon when no other symptom's has happened. We had to keep a close watch on him for the next couple of days, and so far he seems to be doing better.
Now the saying goes that bad things happen in threes, so lets hope that's the end of that.
We will be here for about another week before heading back to the boat, and needless to say as nice as it was to see family again, its time to get our of dodge.