Another Christmas has come and gone and I have much to be grateful for. First, the most important reason for the season, we have the ability and the right to practice religion and celebrate the birth of Christ! What better gift than Jesus have we been given? (totally rhetorical - totally...we'll get to that).
Next, I am grateful for my family and friends who love me, and I them in return! Our kids were up until after 2 a.m. on Christmas Eve, watching our Christmas movie and didn't wake up until after 12:30 to open presents. My Super Hubby, how I do love that man! He went downstairs and set the cameras up and waited so he could video the kids while I took pictures. He knows I don't want to be in pictures as I look like the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man from Ghost Busters - I am serious...paint me marshmallow white and we'd have a winner! So, I took snap shots, he did video, our kids did the tearing off of ribbons, bows and paper. I loved watching them be so happy.
Gathering the gifts into piles so each had their area of presents to open and a small area of presents for them to share. Princess, she's all about getting the job done. The rule is, after all, no playing with your gifts until you've opened each present. We have to have this rule. Otherwise, Hot Rod will open one gift and sit and play with it for the rest of the day while he forgets he had others to open. So, Princess would rip her gift open, ask what it was, then toss it into her plastic bin (to keep their gifts together and bring upstairs later) and move on to the next. "Wow, make up! I totally wanted more eyeshadow!" *toss* NEXT! That's how it went, for the most part, with her, lol. She's "totally" into everything...she should've been born in the 80's with her usage of the word totally. I find it comical, and can't help but giggle each time she declares something totally this or totally that - I'm totally laughing.
Hot Rod was excited about his presents, but wanted to make sure everyone was happy and getting their presents in their own piles at first. He would open his gifts, look at it, read the box, then ask if he could go ahead and open it, while the rest of his presents lay neglected like broken misfit toys in Toyland. So we'd tell him we will open them up after you finish opening your presents go ahead and put it in your box. He was pleased with his gifts and I think he liked that his Awesome Daddy got him some big kid tools. He got his very first level, measuring tape and screwdriver set...which he used to open his Beyblade thingy majigger. Yes, that's the technical term. I have no clue what half of that Beyblade stuff is, he points, says it's awesome (and a lot more words that kind of go over my head) I smile, nod and make a note "this is the thingy majigger he wants...check!"
Our kids are loving, caring, compassionate people and I am grateful for that too. They hate to see others less fortunate, to see that someone doesn't get something, and they want to make all right in the world at times. Makes me one proud Momma! At Subway Hot Rod found a penny on the floor which had patina on the front. He turned it over in his hands a few times, showed me, and then as we were checking out he said "I'm not sure if I should keep it or give it to them" (meaning the people working at Subway) and pointed his thumb in the worker's direction. So I told him it was his found coin and the decision was his. He chose to give it to the workers. He dropped it in their cup and said "Well, I know it's not much, but it's better than nothing I guess." shrugged his little shoulders and began walking away. My heart swelled and his dad then gave he and Princess both a dollar to give the workers. The kids wished them a Merry Christmas and we took our subs to go home and eat.
While we were at the store, the kids were upset that they had no gift to give me, they wanted to buy me something. I don't need anything, but they want me to have one to open, I'm tired, we're in the check out line I have an idea. "Oh you know, you see that over there (the junkfood/candy bars/chips)? You could go over there and pick me out whatever you want me to have and I'd love that!" That made them happy. I got Puffy Cheetos and Reese's Cups from Hot Rod and Cheddar Sour Cream Ruffles and a tiny bag of crunchy Cheetos from Princess. It's the snacks they love! I love that!! Then they came home and wrapped them - adorable!! For Super Hubby, he got some caramels he loves, a bag from each of them, and some pants he wears around the house and was in desperate need of. They wrapped those presents too. Those were the most important presents for the kids, they had to know that we had opened and loved their gifts to us. I surely do love those two kids of ours!
All in all, we had a good Christmas Day. Might not have been idyllic, with me up slaving away over a hot stove of food making sure everything was perfectly decorated, cookies in the oven, bows just so on the presents but it was our Christmas. Our kind of Christmas is probably going to be a little different than most. Our meal was mostly microwaveable sides, a precooked ham you just glaze and heat up, and a frozen boston cream pie, but it was our Christmas meal. Prepared largely by my wonderful Super Hubby, whom I could love no more as it's impossible! He, and those kids...THEY are my Christmas gift! They are the reason I try to get out of bed, or this recliner in the mornings. The reasons I push to try and get through treatments, grocery stores or ball games. I am not the best, and sometimes I feel they deserve so much more, but for some reason this is who I have become and this is who Super Hubby decides to love and be with and my babies, our babies, they love me and try so hard.
Hot Rod does have a hard time expressing the way he feels, hearing the words Hospital...go today...won't be home at Christmas...then bigger words like Plasmapherisis...I know he's worried. So I've made an effort to try and pry those lines of communication open for him since he won't do it on his own. I told him that I knew the neurologist had scared him because he wants me to go to the hospital, but I think we'll be okay to wait. If I get worse, I'll go in, but I did my IVIg here, at home trying to get better, then next month I can do the plasmapherisis. So I told him what has to happen, now to "kid-fun-it-up", I tell myself. "Hot Rod, do you know what Plasmapherisis is?" "No" "Oh, it's kind of cool, you know how I get extra antibodies when I do the IVIg? Well with the Plasmapherisis - that big word, it just means they're going to take my blood out and run it through a machine to wash it, then put it (the blood) back in me! How cool is that! That they can wash away the bad antibodies for a little while!" It's all about presentation folks. He's talking now, he thinks it sounds cool. He doesn't need to know any risks, or anything, just that Mommy gets to do a cool treatment where they take her blood out and wash it then she gets it put back in. And he thinks it's funny that I'm going to be "So bored because I have to lay there, all still, while they do that and have NO ONE to talk to...while you...you're off playing with your new Christmas toys." He giggled, that means he's listening, he's not shutting down, and he's seeing that it's not something to be too scared about. For that, I'm grateful and I think it helped when I went to my GP and was diagnosed with a sinus infection, bronchitis, and moderate restriction because I had told he neuro I'd go to the hospital if I got worse, hearing what was wrong, is minor in comparison to a crisis. So now he sees, "Well, mommy doesn't feel really well, but that's because she has a big cold and she doesn't need to go back to the hospital!
Now what I'd really like to happen is to not feel the eyes of 20 vultures on me looking like they're ready to swoop down and scoop me up if I get any more gimpy. Yes, I said vultures. Those birds who eat dead thing they've been lining the trees outback, looking toward our house - kinda creepy. I told Mark they were coming to get me if I started to look any more dead. Good thing they didn't see me fall out of the car, otherwise they might have tried to swoop and attack! Yes, I said I fell out of the car. I'm become quite well acquainted with gravity and how much gravity loves me! Evidently it loves me so much it wanted me to hug the garage floor after getting back from the store! I opened my door, turned to get out of my seat and it happened. *BAM* Right down I went there in the garage. My leg was weak, I guess a little more than I had anticipated as trying to stand up and put all of your weight on a leg that is on vacation isn't a good thing. Mark got me up out of the floor...aaaagain....and I stubbornly decided to heck with this! I'm wrapping these last couple of presents if it kills me! And I stormed off to wrap them. Okay, okay my "storming" looked more like some old lady who just had her hip fixed, fell and broke her knee and is shuffling through the house with her arms outstretched to hold her balance...but either way...I got those presents wrapped and then Super Hubby came and fixed my knee up. So, I need to be careful, a fall like that outside could've set off the flocking of vultures and I could be telling this not so funny, stupid story while missing chunks of hair, skin or eyes!!
Yesterday we took the kiddos to their eye appointments. Hot Rod's eyes are getting better (yay!), and Princess needed new glasses. She's totally okay with that, she picked new frames. After their appointment, yet before going to buy her glasses we made a stop...at a medical supply store. Yep, I officially have a rollator/transporter/thingy majigger. Not something I thought I'd ever need at my age, but if it helps and allows me to walk without falling, or rest when I get too weak to walk, it's worth it - or at least that's what Super Hubby tells me. The kids aren't embarrassed by it, maybe when they're older they will be, but for now they're not. Instead they're pretty pleased with it. As we walked through the mall to get Princess' glasses and Christmas Swap presents the kids sat on it and I pushed them. It served a few purposes: 1.) It helped me walk, 2.) I knew where the kids were and 3.) The kids got to be lazy and not have to walk -multifunctional medical equipment, yay! While in the store picking it out, the kids sat on every power chair, power scooter, power anything there was in the store and they kept trying to convince me that I needed one of the said power whatevers.
I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas with those you love, family, friends, pets....or alcohol (I kid, I'm not a drinker - but if you are have at it!!). Life is short, sometimes it sucks, but remember those around you, those who love you - don't forget to look for your blessings, because they might not be right there standing in front of you, they may be hidden under shy smiles, whispers, in a dirty penny from the floor, or from the kindness of strangers (thank you lady at Walmart for asking if I wanted to use your motor scooter thing as I walked into the store)!
And we're off to 2012, which will hopefully be a better year for us all!!
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