My Christmas Mistake

My sister got a Kinnect for XBox 360 for Christmas. You can see where this is going, right?...

She got a Dance Central 2 game. I have always wanted to play that game! It looks so awesome on commercials. So when she asked me to join, I put on my boot and figured I'd just move my arms. Of course, I couldn't really do that, I have to get into the game. I am also super competitive (and I will say I did win all but one of the dances).

More than anything my dancing hurt my knee. Since I can't really move my ankle in my boot, the pressure ended up being more on my knee. Now I'm not feeling too good. My plan is to elevate my leg tonight and do some ankle pumps to get the fluid out, and then really rest tomorrow. And no more dancing. :(

I will say my parents warned me as I was going to do it. But I wanted to dance!! It's just one of those things that is SUPER frustrating. I want to be able to do normal things again! I want to play games and go to the gym. I feel ready to do normal things now, the rest of my body feels better after surgery, it's just my ankle of course hasn't healed all the way yet. Why can't you have surgery and then go right back to normal?

Other than this horrible lapse in judgement, my Christmas was pretty good! It is the first one without my Gramps though, which has been hard. It's little things like cards and presents signed, "Mimi," instead of, "Mimi and Gramps." And missing his (recently) quiet presence and general silliness. I know he's happy where he is, and can look out for all of us now. I hope he helps me keep from dancing in the future, until my ankle heals!


Gramps and I trying to take a self pic last Christmas 2010

Gramps and I last Christmas 2010

Gramps' temporary marker and Christmas wreath at his gravesite.

Merry Christmas: Bacardi Rum Cake

Every Christmas for as long as I can remember we have Rum Cake for dessert. I took over making it and glazing it a few years ago. It is delicious, moist, and best served with french vanilla ice cream! Here's the Bacardi Rum Cake recipe we use. (We've made it with Bacardi rum and non-Bacardi rum, and I'm going to tell you, it tasted the same.)

Cake:
1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts (we like black walnuts best for their flavor)
1 18 1/2 oz. pkg. yellow cake mix
1 3 3/4 pkg. Jell-O instant vanilla pudding mix
4 eggs
1/2 cup cold water
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup Bacardi dark rum (80 proof)

Glaze:
1/4 lb. butter
1/4 cup water
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup Bacardi dark rum (80 proof)

Preheat oven to 325. Grease and flour 10" tube or Bundt pan.

Sprinkle nuts over bottom of pan. Mix all cake ingredients together. Pour batter over nuts. Bake 1 hour. Cool. Invert on serving plate. Prick top. Drizzle and smooth glaze evenly over top and sides. Allow cake to absorb glaze. Repeat until glaze is used up.

For glaze, melt butter in saucepan. Stir in water and sugar. Boil 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Stir in rum.

The recipe recommends decorating with whole maraschino cherries and border of sugar frosting or whipped cream and serving with seedless green grapes dusted with powdered sugar. We don't do this, but we do serve with french vanilla ice cream.

I not only poke small holes into the cake to absorb the glaze, but also use a pastry brush to brush the glaze back off the plate/cake stand and onto the cake.

Also, if you've never cooked with alcohol before, be careful when you pour the rum into the glaze! The alcohol burns off and can burn you!

Merry Christmas!

Nothing says Christmas like rum cake!

PT Progress

Dave and Brenda (at PT) were very excited to hear that I wore my shoe for 15 minutes yesterday. So today I got to do some new things at PT while wearing my shoe! I rode the bike for 10 minutes, did the balance board and balancing on a foam thing, worked on my walking (still having a lot of trouble walking properly) and resistance bands before doing EStim and ice. It was very exciting to progress to some new things! I still cannot stand on my toes at all! I am slowly working on that. It's so hard because all of the muscles and tendons in my foot and leg that you use to stand on your toes are really weak.

We've decided that instead of wearing the brace I will start to wear my tennis shoe. I'm starting with an hour today and I'll try to do two hours tomorrow, etc. It's very exciting to wear a shoe finally! Although it does hit the top of the incisions on each side of my foot/ankle, so I'm hoping those are less sensitive soon.

Stupid brace.

I did it!

I did it! I wore two of the same shoes for the first time in months, and a real shoe on my right foot for the first time since March!

I definitely could not have done it for more than 15 minutes. Not only is my right foot swollen, it has like no muscles! It felt so weird to wear a shoe! There's clearly A LOT more work to do. I was able to walk almost normally, without too much of a limp, but I had to walk very slowly. And at least now I can tell Dave he was right - a real shoe will fit on my foot. (He keeps laughing at me because, as he says, I act like I have an elephant foot for my right foot).

Who ever thought I'd have to build up to wearing real shoes? It's such a weird thing to do! For now I'm back in the boot. I'm refusing to wear the brace.

I'm wearing 2 of the same shoe!! :)

Red Velvet Cupcakes!

Today I made red velvet cupcakes for my swimmers! I LOVE red velvet, and I think they're especially fun for Christmas. I'm not going to lie, I made these from a box. Hey - I needed a lot of them! But didn't I decorate them beautifully?!

Yummy! Red velvet cupcakes!

Setback: Update

I went back to PT today. My foot is a lot better! I could do more stretching and use resistance bands for strength again! It's pretty stiff after being in the boot for so long though. They say it will still be a while until things can progress - basically I need to be able to walk more and walk normally before anything else can happen.

I really do think the brace the doctor gave me is the problem. So Dave (PT) wants me to - get this - TRY TO WEAR A REAL SHOE! I haven't worn a real shoe on my right foot since I injured it back in March 2011. It's been more than 9 months! I can only wear a really good shoe (my good tennis shoes with ortho insert) and only for 10-15 minutes around the house - NOT out. I am not convinced my foot will fit into a shoe (part of the reason I haven't worn one in over 9 months) but Dave is sure that it will. So I'm going to try this tomorrow, let's see how it goes! I hope it works because my right leg looks crazy - my foot and ankle is swollen and my calf is so skinny from muscle atrophy! It looks so ridiculous next to my other leg!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Chocolate chip cookies might be my favorite Christmas cookie. They are so good we can't keep them in our house... But there's no need to be a Monica and analyze an old cookie to find the best recipe. My favorite recipe is also Phoebe's great-great grandmother's, Nestle Toll House.

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 large eggs
2 cups (12 oz. package) Nestle Toll House Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels
optional: 1 cup chopped nuts

Preheat oven to 375.

Combine flour, baking soda, and salt in small bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in morsels and nuts. Drop by rounded teaspoon onto ungreased baking sheets.

Bake for 9-11 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks.

My cookies in the Christmas cookie jar! (before someone ate them all...)

Holiday Greetings from the Holiday Armadillo!