Christmas Eve

Most of my long-time readers know that Justin and I usually spend Christmas Eve with his family for their annual family reunion, and we spend Christmas Day with my family. This year however we switched days due to my brother moving all the way to California with his girlfriend. Christmas Eve was when my family would be able to get together one last time so we could all say our goodbyes to my brother. It was a fun but emotional day for my family.

Justin and I wearing our Christmassy shirts

Matt and Katey!

My parent's tree

Matthew told me he had to change into this more "festive" outfit

Justin playing Connect 4x4 with the kids

This Santa hat was way to small for me, but I wanted to be festive!!

After we had celebrated my nephew's birthday we opened family gifts

My brothers watching the gift giving so intently

Katelyn gave Brandon and Maggie a California themed frame with a picture of them.

She used a photo from their trip to Ireland in the frame. Too cute!!

Katelyn gave her gifts out "for my people", we all got a chuckle out of that

Katey gave me a beautiful scarf that had little butterflies and rhinestones on it!

Matthew gave me this lovely wall art.

Jeremiah got a pretty awesome watch from Brandon

Brandon and Maggie gave my mom a Willow Tree figurine. She loves those!

Collin and Sarah gave me this amazing pocket watch/necklace. The cover has a dragon tail in metal work

We gave Brandon and Maggie a basket of goodies

We packed it with snacks for their drive

I will be making a post about the baskets but here is one we made before it was wrapped up

My aunt, cousin and uncle opening our gifts to them.

Collin Levi enjoying attention

My mom and I worked together to make an album of Brandon and Maggie's trip to Ireland from last March.

There were happy tears 💓

My mom did a great job putting close to 300 photos in the album! In this day and age where all our photos are digital I still prefer to print out my photos too.

 

Justin and I got each of my siblings a book, Caleb was really excited to read "The BFG"

 

We gave Katelyn "All-of-a-kind Family", Matthew got a copy of "Holes", we gave Jeremiah "Robinson Crusoe" and Stephanie received a Jane Austen book

My family gave Justin a couple comic books

My family gave us Ponyo!

and Spirited Away!! I love these movies!

We decided to take a family picture. Collin graciously stood in so I could adjust my focus

Family photo! 

As the evening drew to a close there were many tears as we said goodbye to my brother and his girlfriend. I hope they have a wonderful time in California and I'm thankful they arrived safely and are getting settled in. 

Love, Rebecca

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My Nephew is One!

On Christmas Eve we celebrated my nephew's first birthday!

Grandma and her grandson

He is starting to learn how to walk now! 

 It's hard to believe this cutie is already one year old! 

Collin preparing the cake

 Sarah did a fantastic job making this cake

Collin Levi was very confused by all the fuss

He did grab a handful of frosting!!

 Collin Levi  did not like the cake but he loved the ice cream!

Time for presents!!

It was fun to watch him figure out how to rip the wrapping paper

Sarah taking photos to send to her mom

Matt gave him a xylophone! 

He was really excited about this cube toy!

We got him a Tigger plushie

Opening the big box!

A bike to ride!! 

A great big happy Birthday to my nephew!! I hope you grow up big and strong!

Love, Auntie Rebecca

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The Very Long, Horrible, No-good Week

I woke up on December 26th last week (Monday) ready to enjoy my husband's day off and our new Christmas goodies. I was feeling very tired from the weekend's festivities but I chalked it up to over exerting myself. 

Boy, was I wrong. 

By the evening of the 26th I was feeling worse and eventually things progressed to what I thought was 24 hour a stomach bug. My family had been struck by the bug just a few days before Christmas so I wasn't very surprised that I had caught it too. Just give it some time and by Wednesday I should be feeling right as rain!

Wishful thinking...

By Wednesday I was getting worse and started to be unable to keep even water down. Around 6pm a very sharp pain began in my lower left side of my back. "A Kidney stone? Now? During a stomach bug??"

Fast forward to 2am On Thursday and I was laying in a stretcher in the Emergency Room with an IV and anti-nausea medication. I had been continually throwing up water for hours. I was released at 5am with pain and anti-nausea meds and promptly went home and slept. 

I greeted Thursday evening with a little more hope when I finally woke. I took my anti-nausea meds and tried to drink some water. It didn't go so well. The anti-nausea medicine was increasing my nausea. 

Friday morning rolls around and by 8am we are back at the Emergency room by my doctor's request. I was given a CAT-scan and a different anti-nausea prescription. The CAT-scan confirmed that I did indeed have a kidney stone on the move. It should only take a couple days to pass. By noon time I was back home, exhausted and tearful. This week just would not end! 

I should also stress how insanely hungry I was by this point. The last time I had eaten and kept down a meal was Christmas. It had been five days since a meal and I was MISERABLE. It didn't help matters that my new anti-nausea medication was making me unbearable paranoid and panicky. By Friday evening I was a big blubbering mess of anxiety, exhaustion and just plain wanting to enjoy a single cracker! I nibbled a corner of a cracker and went to bed.

Saturday morning we attempted a cracker. It was TERRIFYING waiting to see if it would stay down. But regardless of the anxiety I was successful at keeping down 4 crackers. Four wonderful crackers. 

 By this point my life was mostly sleeping, puking, crying and taking hot baths. Now I could add nibbling on a cracker to my routine. 

Yesterday I was finally able to have a proper meal of plain buttered pasta. It's amazing how delicious the blandest of food are when you haven't eaten in almost a week. I had a small buttered pancake, a handful of nuts and raisins and a glass of milk!! 

I think I'm officially in recovery mode now. I'm pretty sure the kidney stone passed and the stomach bug is over. Now to gradually recuperate and increase food intake till we can have the steak dinner my husband promised me in the darkest moments of this past week. 

Speaking of my husband, he is a saint. He has been my rock during all the crying, puking, nausea, panic attacks and emotional distress. I don't know how he managed to put on a smile when I know how badly it was tearing him up inside seeing me in such awful pain. 

Also, a great big thank you goes to my family, my husband's family and our friends for all their prayers, encouragements and kind messages checking up on me. 

My Christmas posts will be coming eventually, in the meantime, Happy New Year! 

Love, Rebecca

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