Last night I was sitting on the couch listening to "The Nutcracker" and starting on my Christmas cards when the phone rang. It was Andy’s dad. Yesterday morning he had a heart attack. It was amild one apparently, because he was able to get himself dressed and ask Andy’s uncle to drive him to the hospital. He’s resting comfortably there now. He’s due to have further consultations with his doctor today and may stay another day for observation. It was thrombosis. We really don’t know much more than that, other than that there doesn’t seem to be any immediate danger. And we’ll have more news soon. The fact that his dad was able to call us from the hospital and even joke around about it are good signs.

The eerie thing is that Andy had just gone down to Indy to see him over Thanksgiving, and two evenings ago they’d had a long phone conversation. Taking about job woes. So scary to think that only hours later he was having a heart attack.

Andy’s dad doesn’t think there’s any reason why he won’t still be able to come to Chicago for Christmas, as was our plan.

I had been writing Christmas cards and putting things in them like, "What a surreal year it’s been." Yes, it has. The extremes of good and bad have been so extreme that sometimes it’s like "Once in a Lifetime." How did I get here?

Thanks for all your kind thoughts.