Use Your words - Oh, Deer!

Today’s post is a writing challenge. This is how it works: participating bloggers picked 4 – 6 words or short phrases for someone else to craft into a post. All words must be used at least once, and all the posts will be unique as each writer has received their own set of words. That’s the challenge, here’s a fun twist; no one who’s participating knows who got their words and in what direction the writer will take them. Until now.

My words are: 

Anchor ~  Callous  ~  Antique ~ Deer ~ Genes

They were submitted by Sparkly Poetic Weirdo  - thank you, Jenn!

I was hoping to be able to create my post around telling you about this year's office Christmas dinner. Remember last year's incident with the very hot Mongolian fire sauce? But with those tough words, I don't know...

Well, I'm gonna tell you anyway and get to the words later. I was so happy that I was able to participate at all. Between cocktails with interesting names

and appetizers, 

Karen's e-mail, containing the words 

Anchor ~  Callous  ~  Antique ~ Deer ~ Genes

arrived as well.

Oh, deer, that's gonna be tough!

Look, the place is packed with antique decoration items! 

The 50s count as antique, right? RIght?

There is quite some beach, sea creatures, marine life oriented theme going on at that restaurant - surely there must be an anchor to be found! 

Within the thousands of items, can you believe there was no anchor? A ship, yes, but maybe the anchor was outside the picture frame? 

Anyway, speaking of surf, here's what we had for dinner:

Surf (baked lobster tail) & turf (grilled beef fillet), it was SO GOOD! And I was SO STUFFED! 

As if this wasn't enough, my dear coworker, who also arranged for the table and the special meal (usually they serve burgers, it's a very cool and casual place, and I loved that we could have our Christmas dinner at a restaurant where jeans are totally appropriate. All my other pants would have burst after a meal like that!), so this coworker also brought a home made Italian style cheesecake. Being friends with the restaurant manager comes with perks like this!

Andy, who runs Andy's place, joined us for a coffee

Proud baker

I can't even begin to tell you how stuffed I was after a piece of this deliciousness! 

Soon after that it was time for me to leave, so Manuela, our rescuing angel aka babysitter, could join her family dinner.

Tonight I was kind of a callous mother for shunting my sweet son to a last minute babysitter so I could go out. (Still feeling guilty).

For the sake of this post, let's move on, though.

It had been snowing all night long, so I left early and drove slowly. The snow flakes were coming right at my windshield, making me dizzy. 

When I passed a forrest area I remembered something I heard on the radio the other day. Not far from our town they installed a roadside system that detects wildlife and warns drivers ahead. That way they hope to avoid collisions with deer, foxes and wild boars who like to cross the road just about there. I was wondering if those animals were able to find any food these days. Then again today's wildlife is resourceful and manages to communicate with us humans.

Allright, enough of the kidding. 

On my way home my thoughts were also with Mael, the boy in Colin's age who happens to like deer, and also hippos and zebras. 

Last fall we went to see and feed local deer
with Mael and his brothers

He suffers from Niemann Pick Type C disease (some tiny gene is causing his cholesterol to accumulate in his spleen.) 

Mael has been doing amazingly well so far. Learnt to walk, to ride his bike, to jump on the trampoline, to swim and attends first grade,... Brave and gentle he tells his mom not to cry when she is looking at him with a sad expression on her face.

However, just the other day his mom posted that the flu had hit him badly, and he was currently being treated for pneumonia at the children's hospital. Poor little guy!

So sad and scary :-(

Today that my post is being published, Mael is back home running around and playing with his brothers. The disease won't go away though. His sense of balance is deteriorating, and he has a hard time moving his eyes vertically and horizontally. It's heartbreaking.

Playing nurse for his stuffed animals,
his way of dealing with the hospital stay

So far there is no cure, he is on super expensive meds that slow down the development of the disease, and drugs that are supposed to actively help, are only in an experimental state. A study is still not being conducted in Europe.

I wish I had an uplifting conclusion.

I don't.

I am grateful that my son is healthy, and I am sad that Mael is sick. It's not fair.

Remember the intro to "Sleepless in Seattle?" (If you don't, it's Valentine's Day, time to watch it!) Sam Baldwin and his son Jona are at the funeral of their wife / mother.

Daddy says to his son "Mommy got sick. And it happened just like that. There was nothing anybody could do. It isn't fair. There's no reason. But if we start asking why, we'll go crazy."

Makes me cry every single time.

I wish I had an uplifting conclusion.

I don't.

I'm sorry.

Except, maybe those memes about that Brian Williams, the NBC anchor (for the Use Your Words' sake, you know...) - the guy who thought he was so clever...

I hope your Friday 13th is going well, and you have plenty of opportunities to laugh and be grateful. As for me, I am grateful to be part of this blogging community. You ladies rock!

Now go find out what my friends' words were, and what they did with them:

Baking In A Tornado 
Stacy Sews and Schools
Spatulas on Parade 
The Bergham Chronicles
Confessions of a part time working mom 
Juicebox Confession
Someone Else's Genius
The Momisodes
Battered Hope
Sparkly Poetic Weirdo
Eileen’s Perpetually Busy
Southern Belle Charm

PS: In case you are asking yourself what you can do for Mael... His family appreciates every kind of support like visiting their FB site or website (in English even) that also includes a "help & donate" section.