Our Holiday Happenings

{Christmas 2008} Well, what can I say? Our Christmas was all that we could have ever expected- spent time with our families, got more than we really needed and of course, a few unexpected surprises were thrown in to keep it interesting.

What was great about our Christmas: This year, we really tried to keep it simple, tried to have a more Christ-centered Christmas and just tried to relax & enjoy the holiday season more. Throughout the month of December, we did the Stories of Jesus Advent that they had in the Children's Friend. There was a story for each day of the month and it had a scripture reference and picture from the Gospel Art Kit that correlated with each reference. It went over quite well and the kids looked forward to doing it, holding the pictures and learning more about Jesus. I've decided it will become a continued tradition- a good way to remember the reason for the season. We also participated in the Giving Tree that our ward humanitarian specialists do each year with a community group. It was fun for the kids to go and pick something out for a child their age & it was reported that 425 families were helped. That's what it's all about isn't it?

Our kids had a good Christmas. Jace got a new bike- a Spiderman one, which matches his spidey helmet. He also got some fun dress up stuff- like a police officer hat and a cape. Also ended up with some p.j. pants, clothes, a sleeping bag and a keyboard that had a microphone on a stand attached (he wanted a microphone that he didn't have to hold.) Future musician? We'll see.

Rylee got a kitchen set. She loved it & has been busy with it ever since. It's really been fun for both of the kids really- serving up all the teddy bears and dolls and playing restaurant, etc. She also got one of those little snap dolls, some play dishes and food, a little play MP3 player with headphones, a color wonders book with markers and a Fur Real puppy that she can carry around in a little dog purse.

I on the other hand, got quite spoiled. Justin managed to pull off a very big surprise for me this year that I had no idea about. When I opened the last present under the tree, it was a set of keys...to my new Suburban parked in the garage!

What a guy! He had bought it nearly a week before Christmas and had apparently been storing it in Greg & Hailey's garage. So..I'm officially a mom- Suburban and all. We've been feeling major growing pains in the old Honda and we've been needing to upgrade now for quite a while- especially before the baby arrives. He did pretty good I'd say. Luckily, he's enjoying it quite a bit as well so I don't feel so bad about the few shirts he got in comparison.

And the not so good: Unfortunately, we ended up at the Emergency Room on both Christmas Eve and Christmas with Rylee. At least she got another teddy bear out of it. Rylee had been sick for the last few weeks leading up to Christmas. She had a bad cold- runny nose, watery eyes, bad cough that she just could not shake. Her counts were very low and so she wasn't able to get her Chemo treatment as scheduled and they had dropped even more a few days later.

Anyway....long story short, she ended up getting an earache, ran a fever above her protocol level, so a trip to the E.R. was necessary. Luckily, the fever was just a result of the earache, no bacterial infections were found and her counts had gone up a bit so they were able to just give her an antibiotic through her line on both days and we then we were good to go. If her counts wouldn't have gone up she would have had to be admitted because there is different protocol depending on what her levels are. Thankfully they were up enough- what a blessing, definitely our best Christmas gift. It's all part of the complexity of all of this. Very helpless sometimes. Gone are the days where you just give her a little Tylenol or get some Amoxy and you're good. This is the part of the journey that is often difficult- the unexpected things that come up that can't wait and doesn't care that it's Christmas or anything else. But, we just do what we have to do. The antibiotic kicked in, which made her feel better & we were still able to make it to our holiday gatherings without missing much.