"It's been a while since I've posted anything. Life has brought a lot of changes. We put the house on the market in January and it didn't sell until the end of July. We lived in a very stripped down house for all that time and I got to love the simplicity of less. In February I had my knee scoped. The knee is fine - I got a DVT behind my knee and then a PE. I was on Warfarin for 7 months. I then developed severe anemia. I am breathless all the time. I haven't recovered at all from the consequences of the surgery. One of the reasons we moved into town was to be nearer our family. My daughter had suggested it for years. Now we are in town she is never here but always at her boyfriend's way outside of town. She has basically cut us out of her life. The only contact I have with her and my granddaughter is when I take baby girl to her ballet class. My son and his wife are expecting their first child. In the 6 months we have been in town they have been to our house twice. Once the week we bought it just to see it and last week for dinner for my daughter's birthday. They are "always busy" when we invited them. Christmas this year is going to be a disaster. My daughter doesn't want to have anything to do with it except to get her presents. My son is having "Christmas Dinner" for both sides of the family at his house but isn't sure what day. For the first time in her life my granddaughter won't have Christmas dinner with us or her mother. She is spending it with her daddy. She and her mom will unwrap presents with us Christmas morning, then they will leave and we will be alone. Not at all how I imagined my Christmas' as a grandparent. I wanted ALL my family together for Christmas. Now I won't really have any. My daughter will be in a rush to leave and see her boyfriend. My granddaughter will be off to her dad's. My son and daughter in law's Christmas dinner will be horrible because her parents do NOT speak to me. Her dad didn't say one word to me at their wedding, her mother only that no child they have will be as wonderful as my granddaughter. The next day when we met for a "family breakfast" they didn't say a word when I said hello and they walked right on by and sat at a completely different table. I don't know how I can go to the dinner. Maybe I will sit in a corner and get drunk."

Are you listening?