Merry Christmas!!

We made it!! BHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!

I'm thankful for....Christmas!!

Last November, the children's hospital had a wall dedicated to thank-you's.  We all taped up a note of thanks and then looked for them each time we walked by the wall.  We did something similar in our home the previous year with a whiteboard.


I like seeing a wall full of things that make people happy. I wanted to do something similar this year, but couldn't decide where to put it.  I finally settled on something alot more Christmas-y.  This way the notes of thanks can stay up even longer PLUS I get to sneak in Christmas decor early.  We'll grab some green and red paper to make a border along the top of the wall with alternating christmas trees and hearts.  We'll write something we're thankful for on each cutout.


There are so many things to be thankful for this year.  I think it'll be good for the kids to practice focusing on the good things. :)

Merry Christmas!!

Seraph is happy.  She's alert and active.  She has lots of cool Christmas presents.  Rabbit was thrilled to hold her.

Angel slept in late!  She was the last one up, and slept 45 minutes later than she ever has.  The kids played with their santa presents until she 

woke up.  Then we opened

 

the rest of the presents.  Everyone had fun :)

Delightful Finch.  I think she's liked every present. 

 But the one she won't put down

 was this doll from her cousin.  It's adorable!  It makes little baby sounds.  She was too busy dancing with her baby to hold still for a picture.

Strong Bear. This poor kid's been asking to open the christmas presents every day since we put them up on the cupboards.  He's running around crazy with chocolate and candy straws.

Beautiful Rabbit's been trying to guess her present.  She didn't guess, but her eyes almost popped out when she opened her purple scooter!

Now we're watching Wonder Woman (Haqon hasn't seen  them and I LOVED it when I was Finch's age).  Some of these I don't remember. I threw in a pot roast for dinner.  It smells fantastic.

It's snowing like crazy.  We love you guys - hope everyone's having a Merry Christmas :)

Seraph Update

They took out her breathing tube this morning!  She woke up and gave me an earful.  She sobbed as she told me about her whole week in her tiny voice.  When she was done, the tears stopped and she just looked around.  She liked sitting up (with support).  She seems stronger and more alert than last time.  They'll start weaning her oxygen tomorrow.  She won't be home in time for Christmas...but she will be home soon.  She's looking good :)

[Seraph (left), Angel (right)]

All I Want for Christmas?

Perfection!  Is that too much to ask? I was surprised to learn Sexy Haqon and I differ in our views on the perfect Christmas gift. Obviously, Christmas is the perfect time to buy that practical gift that we've been putting off because of money or time issues.  See - I'm easy to shop for because I put off buying things that I want in order to stick to the budget.

Haqon sees Christmas as a time to show how well you know someone by choosing the one gift that's deeply personal; a reflection of every aspect of your friendship.  Wow.  I think my gifts have been falling flat.  Sorry, Sexy.

I'm more of a "oh, I think he'd like that" or "oh, I think this would make his life easier" kind of gal.

Sexy Haqon and I stayed up late wrapping presents.  I was grumpy.  My family is doing the "draw names" thing for Christmas this year.  I thought it would be easier, but in a lot of ways it's just been a grumpy mess.  In the midst of it all, I looked down at Baby Angel on the floor.  She was kicking the wrapping paper with her feet.  She was wearing the biggest (wet) smile her face could hold.  That's my perfect Christmas right there on my Angel's face.

It has very little to do with gifts.  I want to enjoy a little happiness with my family and friends.  So I revised my perfect Christmas:

-Wake up and open presents at home

-then eat breakfast (muslix that we made the night before as a family...everyone getting their own tupperware to add in the perfect mix of the fruit they want)

-drive to grandma's house where we meet up with all our siblings that are in town (without exchanging gifts)

-play card games/board games all day long and into the night -- stopping only to make turkey or (in the dream world) lamb sandwhiches when we get hungry.

-using Skype on Gpa's laptop to spend time with family that's far away

-calling other family on the phone because we love them and want to wish them well.

oh, and no one is sick in my dream world Christmas, so I don't have any worries about the twins and rsv or hospitalization.  My kids run themselves silly with their cousins without actually breaking anything or making a mess that's too big to clean.

(When we're richer and not bound by the distance from Seraph's Cardiologist, we'd like to spend some of our Christmas holidays at Haqon's brothers' houses.)

It's hard enough to get the perfect gift for my own kids and I spend 18 hours a day with them!  I still can't think of anything Strong Bear would like more than the cardboard tube the wrapping paper comes on....so I wrapped it up and tossed it on the pile of gifts!  I may not know my extended family well enough to pick out the perfect gift, but I do love them enough to want to spend Christmas playing with them all day long.

And that sounds perfect.

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