Christmas Eve

Christmas much like most of this year was different.  It has made me realize a lot about holidays and the traditions that come with them.  There are some traditions that we are ok without and there are some we really miss.  I missed so many Christmas events that we look forward to each year.  Christmas didn't feel the same this year.  I enjoyed our calendar not being so full and at the same time missed holiday get togethers and parties.  I miss being with friends and families, enjoying conversations and laugher together.  There weren't any out of town family that came for the holiday.  We chose to not send out Christmas cards this year.  I didn't even feel like baking our normal Christmas treats.  JJ and I spent the morning at the gym and then we headed to my parents for a quick visit.  We wanted to drop off their present in person and have the kids open their gifts from them.  We put our masks on and didn't stay long.  We gave them a firepit that they can put on their driveway.  They were so excited!  My Mom doesn't like walking all the way down the hill to the firepit.  This will be much easier for them and more convenient by the house.  The kids enjoyed opening their presents and I know my parents enjoyed being there in person with them.  We went home and had a zoom Christmas with my family.  We did a gingerbread competition, had musical numbers and opened presents from each other.  It was nice to be able to visit with everyone.  Santa drove through the neighborhood and we went out to say hi and get a candy cane.  That evening we made sugar cookies and watched the Mickeys Christmas Carol while we decorated the cookies.  Since we were home it was nice to get to bed at a decent time and not be up so late with final Christmas preparations.  Like most of the year we are adjusting to things being different and finding the positive in these new situations.  Although we miss our family and the fun times we have together it was nice to have a more relaxed day at home.       

Some teachers at the elementary school had a bunch of soda tabs to donate.  We stopped by to pick them up and were so surprised there were so many.  The Ronald McDonald house collects soda tabs and Lucy decided to collect as many as we can to take back with us in the spring.  We are off to a good start, several people have dropped off tabs they have already been collecting.   

For the past several weeks my ear has really been bothering me.  I have felt unbalanced and had several vertigo attacks over the past few weeks.  It has really taken a toll on me.  It has been exhausting and upsetting.  I hate not knowing how I am going to feel or what my day will be like.  I had several bad vertigo attacks that left me throwing up and dizzy in bed.  I have been trying to take things one day at a time and just make it through.  Having the kids home and helping Nolan with his school work has only added to my exhaustion.  My patience with school has been very thin and I have wished more then once he was in school like normal.  I am thankful we are able to be home and I would pray everyday for patience and strength to do another day.  I was always thankful when JJ would come home and help Nolan with a few things and help wrap up school work.  I know things wont always be like this.  I know eventually my ear will clear up, eventually the kids will go back to school and eventually winter break will be here.  This is the first year I have been equally excited for a break from school.  I break from all the routine and mess it brings to my kitchen table.  

I assigned Lucy to make dinner one evening.  I know she can follow a recipe and sometimes having someone help with dinner was just the break I needed at the end of the day. She did a great job and I need to ask her to do it more often.  I think she would rather make dinner instead of help with dishes. 

We put together a little gift bag with some soaps for our staff.  We have learned that they prefer and appreciate most a Christmas bonus.  We wanted to still get them a little something so we asked our neighbor Carrie if she had any soap we could buy from her.  She brought these over and they were perfect.  We hope the staff loves her soap as much as we do. 

Christmas Sunday

Christmas Sunday was different, like most things have been this year.  It was strange to have a shorter program not involving singing.  There were just a few speakers and two piano musical numbers.  I love the music of Christmas and really missed the big Christmas service we are use to.  It was still nice to have talks about our Savior and the Christmas season.  It is always a nice reminder to think of the real meaning of Christmas.  I especially enjoyed one of the talks about what gift you are going to give to Christ.  It was an important reminder to me and made me think and reflect on what I could give to Christ on Christmas.  

Ronald McDonald House Donation

The kids received a letter in the mail from Grandma and Grandpa Smith.  For Christmas this year they gave all the grandkids some money to donate to an organization of their choice.  The kids talked about things they might be interested in donating it to.  After our wonderful experience at the Ronald McDonald house they decided they would like to donate things to our local house.  JJ called the Ronald McDonald house here and talked to them about donations they are in need of.  We took the kids to the store and they picked out food, cleaning supplies and some toys to donate to the house.  They added up the things as we put them in the cart so we stayed close to the amount Grandma and Grandpa sent.  We were able to get so many things that will be so helpful to the house here.  After having just stayed at a house it was interesting to have a different perspective.  It was easy to think of the things that were so helpful for use while we were there.  Saturday we took our donation down to the house.  The worker came out and was so thankful for the things we brought.  It was interesting to see another Ronald McDonald house.  It was fun for the boys to see a house and kind of imagine where it was we stayed.  The kids enjoyed having this experience to give back.  What a neat gift idea from Grandma and Grandpa.   

Visiting Santa

We are glad that even with Covid we were able to visit Santa.  It was actually a lot easier to see Santa this year.  We were able to make an appointment online and it was so quick and easy.  We were the only ones there and walked right up to see Santa.  They had a plexiglass divider that was cleaned in between each visit.  It made it a little hard to hear Santa and he had to position himself so there wasn't a glare.  The kids asked for a puppy which he told them he leaves up to Mom and Dad.  Garrett did ask for a heated blanket and Nolan wants a nerf gun.  It was a nice quick visit, we were done within 15 minutes.  Which is such a contrast on our previous visits when we wait in line forever.  We made a quick stop to see the fish and then headed home.  I am glad we were able to visit Santa and make sure he knows what we want for Christmas.  

Gingerbread Houses

Sunday evening we had fun decorating gingerbread houses together.  I must have bought a gingerbread house kit on clearance after Christmas last year.  I found a village kit in our Christmas bins.  Each of the kids built a house from the kit and I worked on a house for our family competition.  My family decided to do a gingerbread house competition and vote online.  We made our house out of pop tarts and had fun picking out different candy at the dollar store.  We got on facetime with JJ's parents and visited while we worked on our houses.  Thank goodness for technology so we can all stay connected.  It has also been fun to do things over different social media platforms like our gingerbread houses.  We thought our house turned out really cute and it was a fun evening working together on them.     

Food Drive

We decided to organize a neighborhood food drive.  There was no scouting for food this year because of Covid.  We made a post on our neighborhood Facebook page and put a bucket on our porch for donations.  We had a good amount of participation from our neighborhood and had over two buckets full of food to donate.  The St. Louis food bank also had several donation places where you could take donations.  It worked out good to take our donations to one of the locations instead of driving down to the food bank.  It was a great way to serve and the kids enjoyed the opportunity to serve in a small way.  It was excited to see people drop things off on our porch and have the buckets fill up.  I hope the kids can see there are easy and small ways to serve all around us.     

Oreo The Cow

Nolan's school class is part of the adopt a cow program.  Each month they receive information about their cow Oreo.  They are learning about how he is growing, what he is eating and how they take care of him.  They were able to have a virtual field trip with the farm which was a lot of fun.  They saw pictures of the farm and one of the workers talked with the kids and answered their questions.  I am glad Nolan is still able to participate in fun things like this while doing virtual school.  He was so excited about his field trip and had a really fun time seeing Oreos farm.  Virtual learning has been going well at our house but it certainly has it's stressful aspects.  I miss being able to have a little bit of alone time during the day.  I miss quiet time and doing things I enjoy by myself.  I am thankful I can be here and help the kids learn.  We took some time off school on a day we had slides and made apple crisp together.  I think we both needed a little break from the school schedule and school work.     

 

Rheumatology Follow up

Lucy had a follow up visit with Dr. Baszis, her Rheumatologist.  He was interested to hear how Lucy's surgery went.  He was very impressed with how she was looking and her results so far.  He called in another doctor and the nurse practitioner to look at her as well.  They had never seen anyone have a surgery like Lucy's.  Dr. Baszis also doesn't see kids that look like Lucy very often, one maybe two a year.  Even if he see's someone like Lucy it isn't exactly like Lucy's.  They enjoyed hearing about her surgery and her recovery.  They pulled up her photos on the computer that they took clinically over the summer.  I pulled up some pictures that the Munson's had taken for us and they were so impressed with those.  I am so thankful for the pictures we have from the Munson's.  They are such great documentation for us as well as a great memory of Lucy's progress.  Overall nothing big came from the appointment.  They are going to continue Lucy on the methotrexate and folic acid and for now no more steriod infusions.  We will follow up again in three months.  

We made a stop by the infusion center to drop off some movies we collected.  While Lucy did her steriod infusions we learned the nurses usually buy the movies with their own money.  We decided to see if anyone in the neighborhood had any movies they would like to donate.  We also looked through our movies and donated a few.  We were able to see our favorite nurse who helped us during each infusion.  She was happy to see Lucy and hear about her surgery.  They were all so thankful for the movies we collected and donated to them.

School Photos

Kids Christmas Photos

Our friends had a Christmas photo set all set up and asked us if we wanted to bring the boys one week to take some photos.  It worked out good and just took a few minutes to snap a few photos of them.  I love them and thought they turned out so cute.  Although Lucy's face is still healing I enjoy having some new photos of all the kids together.  I love their sweet smiles. 

Five Weeks post-op