In Which I Give Thanks

Well. I'm not sure where to start, but to put it mildly the last few days have been tough. This holiday season has not kicked off at all the way I'd expected it to, but I'm grateful all the same. Thursday night my grandfather was taken to the ER after some suspicious behavior at thanksgiving dinner. And thank goodness everyone convinced him he needed to go because they discovered he had a double brain hemorrhage from a fall he took a few weeks back.  In the days after he was hospitalized and underwent brain surgery. I am SO happy (and relieved) to report that he is now resting and recovering well and will soon begin rehabilitation over the next few weeks. It's certainly not the way any of us wanted to spend our thanksgiving holiday but as I watched my huge family (see: 11 children, their spouses and grandchildren) all come together at the hospital, everyone willing pitch in and do whatever was needed and be there for him through all of this, I was reminded of just how much I have to be thankful for. It's cliche, I know, but this was the most in your face thanksgiving, you better count your blessings, holiday weekend I can remember. 

We've also been sneaking in some traditional christmas fun for the boys to keep them entertained and pumped up on holiday spirit despite all the stress of this week :) To start, we took them to see santa. Wes did great, which was in sharp contrast to last year and Oren cried like a baby. He really brought his A game to the pictures that night (you'll see).

Also, we checked out the annual christmas tree festival for Akron Children's Hospital and let Wes do the honors of stuffing our yearly donation in to a stocking on the NICU tree. (A word of advice, do not look directly in to that tree unless you like balling your eyes out in public). There were some really good trees this year. Wes liked the grinch tree, the candy themed tree (of course) and my favorite was the one made from recycled newspaper. It must have taken FOREVER. I was very impressed. We also checked out some traditional window displays while we were downtown, did some shirtless candy cane eating, let the boys help decorate my mom's tree and iced some cookies. Also, Wes hand wrote his first ever letter to Santa. He did it all by himself and he was so proud. (I was too). Anyway, I hope you all had a restful and much more stress-free holiday than I did.  But, I'm looking forward to next weekend when we get to go pick out our TREE! (Best day of the year, am I right?!)

(like i said, A game)

(oren's contribution)