Christmas 2012

Ahhhh, Christmas.  I do love this time of year.  The lights, the colors, the tree, the cheer, the giving, the excitement.  Even wrapping presents.  I feel as if a Christmas hangover is going to be imminent.  We still have Christmas with Oliver's parents starting tomorrow as they are driving down from Toronto to spend a few nights with us, so the hangover will be delayed.  It is hard not getting caught up in the build-up to Christmas, and then suffer the withdrawal symptoms afterward.  There is always New Years to perk us back up!

We had a really nice Christmas.  We spent Christmas Eve with my family, at my parents house with all of my siblings, nieces, and some extended family too.  Christmastime at their house, our childhood home, has always been the norm for us, with family always coming to us.  It has been harder the last few years, as we all have families of our own now and for the last few years haven't all been together for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  But this year we did and it was nice.  My parents do so much to host these events and I just can't imagine Christmas any other way!  I love some traditions we have and we definitely owe it my parents for keeping up with them.  The 4 granddaughters were together and they were crazy together, but it was fun.  I hope they will have wonderful memories of these holidays.  I know I do!

The girls loved opening presents (of course) and playing with new toys.  I think they will keep busy with them for a long while.  I would love to purge some old toys.  It is amazing just how much stuff accumulates after just 4 years of having children. 

My brother Chris and I took on a project this year for Sofia and Camryn's presents.  He grudgingly went along with my plans and the result was perfection!  He admitted it later too.  We bought kind of a bare bones dollhouse bookshelf and decked it out with all the upgrades - carpet, flooring, a loft, furntiure.  I know the girls will play with this for years and I love that it has our personal touch on it.  Adelaide was so cute walking around the little puppy that my sister Kate got her.  She loves walking Kate's bulldog, Dexter, and now she has her own little puppy that walks on leash.  When I was tucking her into bed tonight, her last request was for her puppy.  So sweet.

We will never forget 2008 when Sofia was born exactly one week before Christmas.  I was due 12/20 and I was kind of relieved to be induced on 12/18,  so that we could spend our first Christmas at home as a family.  And as I learned, there are things you can't plan for, or you can try to plan all you want, but some things can't be predicted.  Sofia had surgery on 12/22 and was in the hospital well into the new year.  It was a hard holiday season, but somehow we made it through.  I think we have come to love this time of year even more and appreciate the good years we've had since then.

We are very lucky everyone was in good health this year and we truly had a holiday season to remember! 

Oliver and Sofia on Christmas Eve

4 Granddaughters

Sofia with her ornament she made in preschool

Adelaide and me on Christmas Eve

Dollhouse Before

 

Dollhouse After

Decorated for Christmas

 

London

I've been thinking about updating for awhile, but knowing it would be a bit of a lengthy post, I wanted to find time to sit down and write.  First things first, we had an amazing time in London!  We had basically a 10 day vacation visiting Oliver's brother in London and in Wales for his wedding.  The girls were good on the flight over and we had Oliver's parents to help us on the flight. When we arrived in London we went into the city and they spent the week in Bath.  We did lots of sighseeing in London and the girls enjoyed being strolled around the city and shown the sights.  It was on the cold side, but not very rainy, so we managed.  We had a great apartment that we rented, which was in a good location and had 2 bedrooms, and a kitchen.  The wedding was beautiful and it was an all around great trip.  It was nice to be able to enjoy a real family vacation.

Germ season is clearly upon us as both of my girls have had stomach bugs in the past 2 months, but luckily Oliver and I have escaped it.  Sofia's was particularly persistent over 14 hrs. and involved a trip to the ER as she wasn't keeping anything down .  The next day she bounced right back and was fine.  She is doing well heart-wise.  She has done well since her heart cath and is doing well on coumadin.  We have now gotten her at a good dosage and we were able to get a home testing device and monitor her levels at home.  She now only has to be tested once per month at home, so the frequent trips to the lab are going to come to an end, which is nice.  She had a cardiology check up this week and Dr. Edwards said how good she looks, which is what we like to hear.  Her echo was good and it was uneventful, which is great. 

She is being followed by a gastroenterologist ever since it was discovered she had gallstones back in June.  One of the reasons we took her to the ER when she had the stomach bug was to rule out that her gallstones weren't what was causing her to be sick.  And over the past few months, when her liver is palpated, it seemed to be larger than normal, but her blood work had been normal.  She then had one result that showed a slightly elevated AST and ALT.  The gastroenterologist recommended that we recheck, do an ultrasound and then meet again in January.  Thankfully, her bloodwork and ultrasound were both normal in October and November, so I'm hoping for a good appointment in January with her.  I'm hoping her liver had just taken its time to recovery from her heart surgery in May and that these issues are behind us at this point.  I also know that Fontan patients can develop liver problems due to their elevated venous pressues, so I would expect she is always monitored for these issues.  I also hope that they know more about these problems and have a course of treatment by the time Sofia reaches an age where this could be a real problem for her and patients with similar anatomy.

There is big cause for celebration tomorrow because it is Sofia's 4th birthday!  I truly cannot believe she is going to be 4.  When she was born I couldn't imagine what things were going to be like when Sofia was a toddler and preschooler and into the future, and I am so very proud of this sweet, beautiful girl.  I can't wait to see her excitment on her big day and celebrate Christmas with her, Oliver, and Adelaide this year. 

Adelaide celebrated her 2nd birthday in London.  She is becoming such a big girl and has a vocabulary to rival her sister's at that age.  She is sweet and sassy and still a mommy's girl.  She loves her big sister and it can be very cute to watch them together.

I am so thankful to have these beautiful girls and my heart just breaks for the parents who had their children taken from them this week in Connecticut.  I just cannot imagine life without my girls, and I pray for these families because their lives will never be the same.  So, so sad.

The four of us at Thomas and Selena's wedding

                                                           Adelaide on her 2nd birthday