A Strange Turn of Events

This is what I put on Facebook on Monday night as an family update. I'll keep you posted with more information later this week. 

It’s been kind of crazy around our house in the last 36 hours. Yesterday morning Daryl woke up and had no vision in his left eye. Just nothing. A visit to urgent care and the ER left us with a diagnosis of an ocular migraine. But today we visited two ophthalmologists and a retinal specialist, from Leesburg to Clermont to Orlando. He now has a diagnosis of retinal artery occlusion or what some people call an “eye stroke.” There are some additional tests to be run in the next few days. We weren’t given a lot of hope in the way of treatments; consensus today was that some vision might come back over time but that this is basically permanent. We’ll be seeking out other opinions; dear friends have already recommended acupuncture and another retinal specialist in Gainesville that has had some treatment successes. We appreciate your prayers and support.

Christmas Lights

We spent Saturday evening as a family touring the Christmas lights around the City Hall in Lady Lake and then strolling through downtown Mount Dora. The boys loved that our first stop in Mount Dora was to Scoops on 5th for an ice cream snack! How many places can you tour Christmas lights and eat ice cream without freezing?

Lady Lake 

Mount Dora 

A Night At The Symphony

On Friday night Daryl and I got to attend a Holiday Concert at The Sharon Performing Arts Center in The Villages. A church family gifted us with tickets for the evening to the Philharmonic Orchestra's Christmas Concert. It was our first time at The Sharon and it was wonderful. We had amazing seats too - 2nd row center orchestra.  

The music was a beautiful blend of classical Christmas (Agnus Dei, Ave Maria, Gesu Bambino), popular Christmas songs (Sleigh Ride, Merry Christmas Darling, White Christmas) and songs from Christmas movies (Home Alone, Frozen, Polar Express and Jim Carrey's Christmas Carol). They finished up with O Holy Night and Silent Night. The orchestra also had a Chorale singing along and some featured vocalists on many songs. So well done and very enjoyable. There was no photography allowed during the performance, so the pictures below are from the local newspaper on their Facebook page. 

Scout Christmas Parties

On Tuesday night the littles had their Cub Scout Christmas party and Awards night. 

And the night before, Parker had his last Court of Honor for the year and his Boy Scout Christmas party. They did theirs outside and even with the bonfire we froze a little! Parker was recognized as the newly elected patrol leader for the Green Cobra patrol. 

Staff Christmas Party

We hosted the staff on Tuesday night for our Annual Christmas party. Not everyone was able to make it but most were. We had a really great time hanging out together and everyone brought so much amazing food to share. We even celebrated Pastor Mal's birthday!