We were blessed this year to celebrate Christmas with many, many family members. Our first family Christmas was with Jim's family, the Saturday before Christmas. Here is Maddie with Jim's mom.
Opening gifts.
Playing with cousins.
Maddie enjoyed eating her new Little People prince and princess.
The next day, Jim's mom came over to our house for breakfast and to exchange gifts. After our celebration with her, we finished loading up our van, and we left for South Carolina to spend a week with my family.
We drove about half way the first day, and we stayed in a hotel that night. After several hours in the van, we were ready to be at our hotel for the night, but we were dismayed to find that the crib we had been promised was not there. The guy at the front desk told us that the hotel had no cribs. We ended up putting one of the mattresses on the floor for Maddie to sleep on, and I slept on the couch next to her mattress. Jim and Drew shared the other bed. None of us slept well, and we were pretty disappointed in that hotel stay. One bright spot of our night there was our little family gift exchange. We decided to do our family gift exchange that evening, and we had lots of fun watching the children open their gifts from us.
Some highlights were Drew's Angry Birds set,
Maddie's little pink car (from Drew),
some books,
and a scooter.
Jim read one of Maddie's new books to the children before bed.
We arrived at my parents' house in South Carolina on Christmas Eve. My sister and brother-in-law came over and spent Christmas Day with us. On Christmas night, we decided to try out one of the gifts we had given Drew - Stomp Rockets! I had done a little research on good gifts for 5 year-old boys, and Stomp Rockets were a very highly recommended toy. We had so much fun with them! Drew's technique was a little crazy at first!
Jim and Maddie got in on the action!
My dad tried them out too!
I enjoyed them as well!
Drew loves this new toy, and we played with the stomp rockets several times the week we were there.
We did our family Christmas on the 29th, and we were all spoiled with gifts. We had an extra member this Christmas - one of my dad's students, David. He is from Hawaii, and he wasn't able to go home for Christmas, so he stayed with my parents for a week. He was a great friend for Drew that week, and they played Wii together quite a bit!
My brother, Mark, with one of his gifts.
Maddie and my mom.
Maddie and my sister.
We took a family picture,
and we took the first sibling picture we've taken in years.
We came home on New Years Eve, a day before we had planned to come home. Jim called his mom to say hello that morning, and she told him that she had had trouble breathing the night before and that she was feeling weak. Jim and his sister (who was also out of state that week) were able to get a nephew to take Jim's mom to the emergency room, and we started packing up to go home. We left around noon, and by then, Jim's mom had been admitted to the hospital. Blood tests showed a possible heart attack, so the doctors scheduled several tests, including a heart cath on Wednesday. Our trip went well, and we pulled into our driveway around 11:00 on New Years Eve. We were grateful to be home before midnight and to avoid any drunk drivers on the road.
Jim's mom has had several tests this week, and her final diagnosis was a blood clot in her lungs and another blood clot in her leg. She is still in the hospital, and she is hoping to go home in the next few days after her blood levels get back to where they should be.
It has been a crazy week since we got home, but we are thankful that Jim's mom is healthy and that she is starting to feel better now. We would appreciate your prayers that she will get fully better and that she will be able to come home soon.
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