Christmas Eve Gumbo

Every year the Kendall's have the holiday group over to their house for gumbo and a visit from Santa. It thrills the kids so much. The Sessi children were all with their own in-laws so the group of kids there was smaller than usual.

I was so disappointed that I did not get some better pictures of the kids with Santa. John absolutely freaked out and would not let us get him within 5 feet of Santa. And Alivia looks like she is flipping us off in one picture and possessed in the other. AHHH! She is actually holding these neat balancing birds that Santa handed out.

Next year I am going to just take the kids to the mall to get a pic with Santa. I am trying to get one every year.

The Risinger clan all had terrible colds and coughs but still managed to have a good time.

Cookies with Mama T and Mimi

My mom makes the most amazing sugar cookies every year. They are beautiful and tasty and everyone looks forward to them. As the kids have gotten bigger, she has involved them in the decorating aspect. Although a bit stressful (you can imagine trying to control sprinkles and frosting) the kids had a blast. Even John "decorated" a few. Mama T was here visiting and enjoyed seeing all the chaos and joy the event brought on.

Merry Christmas!

Photos by Jill Bee Designs

Remy's Eye Surgery

Poor Remy. . . sometimes we even forget he is around. My mom comes over and just shakes her head when she sees that his food and water bowl are completely empty.

Along those lines, our babysitter, Emilee, noticed that his right eye was really red one day when she was here. I began to actually look at Remy for the next few days and noted that she was right. How long had it been going on! AHHHH!

I scheduled a vet appointment and Matt took Remy, Alivia and Will. It turns out Remy had a large mass growing underneath his eyelid and needed emergency surgery (for $800!!!) because it was scratching his cornea. The vet prepared us that it may be cancer, but thankfully, the pathology came back negative.

Remy has to wear a cone for the next week which he absolutely HATES. And his eye still looks very red - I hope his eye and vision will return to normal soon.

End of Semester Performances

Whew! This last week was crazy with lots of end of the semester performances. We started off with Alivia's dance recital. She loves showing us what she has learned over the semester and really seems to enjoy ballet (like her mama!)

Next up was Will's Christmas chapel. He looked absolutely adorable in his choir robe and crown. He sang some of the time, but mostly looked around at all the people and took his crown on and off.

And to end the week, Alivia had her Christmas Assembly at Veritas. This is a way for all of the Grammar School electives to showcase what they have learned over the semester. From music class, to drama, to Spanish, they all performed. It was interesting to see what each group did. Alivia's music elective sang a few Christmas carols.

Grandpa's Birthday

We all celebrated with a wonderful salmon dinner and had the family over to our house, which I loved. I served dinner on my special Christmas china. Alivia and Will had made a special trip to the Dollar Store to each buy a gift for Grandpa. It was so sweet. But then after Alivia gave her gift to Grandpa, she asked, "Can I have my money back?" Ha ha!

Grandpa seemed touched when he was surrounded by his 5 grandchildren, each wanting to "help" him open each gift.

SICK

I always thought my first visit to Dell Children's ER with John would be because he had broken a bone. It turns out it would be for croup.

John had been struggling with a dry cough for about 3 weeks when suddenly it began to worsen throughout the day. By the evening, I took him to an after hours clinic and the pediatrician there assured me that he had no wheezing and thought that he did not need any special treatment or medications. After putting him down for the evening, John slept for about 30 minutes when he had finally quit coughing. He awoke around 10:30 pm with terrible stridor, shortness or breath and the classic seal-bark coughing. I immediately put him in the bathroom with me and started the shower. Next, I called my mom and told her "Please come. NOW."

It is a terrible thing to see your child struggle to breathe. I felt so utterly helpless. Plus, to top it all off, Matt is out of town! AHHHHHH!!!

Once my mom arrived, I whisked John to Dell. They saw us immediately and gave him some oral steroids. Then we waited with the assurance that he would get better, probably in about 90 minutes. We were even given the OK to go home. Thank you dear Lord, that I did not go home.

Because about 60 minutes later, he began to worsen. To the point that I stood outside our room at the ER and called for a nurse to come evaluate him again because he was worsening. The RT came and gave him a racemic epi neb (which really peeved him) and made him shaky. It was starting to become more evident that we would probably be admitted at that point.

He received another epi neb about 4 hours later but was still struggling with significant stridor and retractions so we were admitted around 5 am. I felt so alone without Matt there. I am sure I was quite the sight - incredibly pregnant, alone with my sick 20-month old child.

We are home now and John seems to be doing better. I know we will struggle with the cough for awhile, but he no longer has the seal-bark or the stridor - YAY! Oh, and Matt comes home tonight. Double YAY!