16 Days Was Way Too Long...

...to go without seeing my mom.  But because of a lingering round of colds that made its way through our household, that's how long we had to stay away from my mom, given our desire to protect her and the other residents in the nursing home from catching our germs.

It was a long 16 days.  :(

But you can imagine how excited we were to finally have the all-clear to go and see her again, which we did on Tuesday of this week.  It just so happened that that afternoon, there was a group of square/line dancers from another part of the retirement community who was coming into the Alzheimer's unit where my mom lives to give a performance for the Alzheimer's residents.  We decided it would be fun to watch that, so we planned our visit accordingly; and it worked out really well.  We enjoyed ourselves very much.

Also, I will never again be able to hear "Boot Scootin' Boogie" by Brooks & Dunn without seeing in my mind a group of silver-haired senior citizens kicking up their heels to this tune.  Or rather, shuffling along to this tune.  It was perfect.  :)

Seeing my mother's smile again did my heart a world of good.  :)

 Grandma had her own little cowboy beside her during the dances.  :)

 I loved seeing these dancers have fun with this.  The emphasis wasn't on perfection, but it was obvious that they were really enjoying themselves, and you couldn't help but be happy as you watched them.  :)

 At this point, Shav was getting a little restless, so I turned the camera over to him; and the next seven pictures were taken by him--some a little blurry, but that's OK when you're a five-year-old photographer.  :)

 This lady led the audience in a sitting "dance" with various hand and upper body motions.

 Of course, my family jumped right in and did it, too.  :)

These times of connecting the young with the old are PRECIOUS to me, and surely one of the silver linings to the cloud of having to have my mom in a care facility is that my young ones can touch and brighten the lives of more older folks than are in our own family!