Naughty or Nice

Two of my MIL's favorite things are dogs and cigarettes not sure in what order. For the past nine months that she has been in our home she quit smoking. Thank goodness. Smoking is one habit that would be hard for me to live with.

In the past several months I have compared having my MIL in our home to being a parent. I have always heard people say that the child becomes the parent when the parent ages. Well, that has definitely been the case when dealing with a parent who has alzheimers.

For the past two days since I have been home I have watched my MIL get on the bus to ride to the Senior Citizen Center. I noticed that both days she was taking her purse with her. I thought that was kind of odd because she hasn't taken it for the 7 or 8 months that she has been going. I asked if she meant to take it and she said yes as she clutched it close to her chest! Reminded me of my girls going to school with a toy in their backpack that they weren't supposed to take and just their body language told you they were hiding something. I felt the same way with my MIL---but what was I supposed to do---strip search her!

About 11:30, I heard a knock on the front door and could see through the window that it was my MIL returning from the Center. By the time I got to the door she had headed toward the garage so I ran to the backdoor to open the garage. I walked out on the driveway and she was no where to be found. I called out her name and went back to the front door as I looked on the patio in the backyard---she was no where to be seen. While I was running from door to door the phone rang so I stopped to answer it and then returned to the garage to see if she had appeared. As I opened the door that goes onto the patio, there she was. As the wind blew her in, I had an ah-ha moment. She had been smoking---thus the reason she was carrying that purse and holding onto it for dear life! I asked if she had been smoking and she said she was sitting on the air conditioner (out of any view from our windows) and smoked a cigarette. I felt like the mom who had just busted her teenage daughter for smoking! She even had the same look on her face as a thirteen year old would!

Evidently she has found a friend at the Center that is giving her cigarettes. It cracks me up! My husband on the other hand was not as amused by her "hanging out" with the wrong crowd at the Center--hahaha!!

So, I guess Santa will definitely want to know if she has been naughty or nice. I guess we will see if Santa comes tonight!

Life is good over the hill!