Pre Christmas Celebrations

Kidd Family Christmas Party

My mom's side of the family gathers every year right before Christmas.  My mom, her parents, her three siblings and all their kids and grandkids.  It's a full house...this year we actually did it at a church house.

 My treat platter...red velvet pinwheels, white chocolate, gingerbread oreo blondies, and candy cane kiss chocolate crinkles.

                                 

My sweet aunt planned our party around stockings this year.  We were all supposed to wear fun, festive socks and she had a stocking for Ben and my cute cousin's son who has a very rare blood disorder.  She encouraged family members to come prepared to donate to the two causes.  It was such a sweet idea.

Josh and Matt both surprised us by volunteering the Christmas piano pieces for the talent show :)

All the kids dressed up for the nativity except for Ben who refused.

Grandkid gift exchange

Ben was thrilled to receive "Go Go ornaments".

Me with my Ireland living cousin and her husband.

Me and Ben with my cousin Josie (Forrest's mom).

Mom caught us planning possible future joint fundraisers.

Christmas Eve

Christmas eve was spent at Mom and Dad's.

 Ben and Bapa doing "Wheels on the Bus" on the iPad.

We had dinner, some spiritual reflection on the true meaning of Christmas and then

we went ahead and opened presents from Grandma and Grandpa.

Josh with a new book series and Matt with a spirograph.

 Abby got a beautiful new green dress for her doll.

 Ben received some nifty car tracks that he loves.

 A new case for my laptop.

 My silly brothers having musical Christmas fun.

And with that, we were off to our home to tuck in our children and let sugarplums dance through their heads.
Oh, the anticipation of Christmas Eve!

Spectacles

A couple of months ago we got a letter from the school saying that Abby had not passed the vision screening in either eye and suggested that we take her to an eye doctor.

She seemed excited about the prospect of getting glasses.

Sure enough...she has her mother's (and father's) eyes.

She had fun trying on all the different frames and decided on some super fun ones.

We had to wait two weeks for the right size of frame to come in and then once we made sure they fit well, we had to wait another week or so for them to be finished.

She loves them!

We all think they are really cute on her :)...and she sure enjoys seeing crisp lines in life.

Loss

Two weeks before Christmas I found out that I had lost our baby.

I went in for a routine check up and the doctor could not find a heartbeat.  She did an ultrasound and confirmed that our baby wasn't alive.

Such pain.

I know that miscarriage is not an uncommon thing...but it's not something that you ever expect to happen to you.  I was 13 weeks along.  Far enough along that I thought we were safe.

In the ultrasound, our baby was measuring to the day...something had just barely happened.  So, of course, you replay the last 24 hours in your mind and think of what you did that could have caused it.

It's hard not to do that.  Dr. M. said that 75% of the time it is just something chromosomal.

She scheduled a D&C for the next day.

The rest of the day was painful...telling Andy, telling the kids...not being able to answer the phone when concerned loved ones called, not being able to mail the Christmas cards that announced our new arrival in June that I had addressed and ready to mail after my appointment.

I had to email my mom because I didn't want to experience the emotions of telling her on the phone.  I was kind of numb and just went through the motions of the rest of the day.  Josh had an orchestra concert that night.

When we got home I lay on the bed and was kind of in and out while Andy took care of the kids.

Before they went to bed they all came in and Andy gave me a blessing.  He said he had just had a good talk with the kids and read some scriptures that had helped them understand things a little more.  

I fell asleep and slept well.

In the morning, before the kids left for school, Josh came to me and told me he hoped there was a miracle and when I went in later that day for my surgery that "the doctor would take an x-ray and find the baby's heart beating again."  He is very tender and took the news the news the hardest.  Bless his heart.

I didn't need to be to the hospital until noon, so for the morning, I cleaned up the house, showered and took Ben downstairs with me.  I turned on a favorite old Christmas movie and broke out a brand new 1000 piece Christmas puzzle.  I've always enjoyed puzzles and wanted to start a Christmas puzzle tradition.  It was good therapy for me and distracted me from the surgery later that day.  Ben played happily on the floor and was a good companion.

My brother, Mom and Dad all took turns watching Ben while Andy and I were at the hospital.  I was in a very sober mood on the way there.  It was snowing very prettily and Andy talked to me about his morning at work.  The secretary at the seminary just found out that she has advanced cancer.  She talked to all the teachers that morning and was so positive and cheerful.  She said she truly felt honored that the Lord trusted her with cancer.  Andy thought it was an appropriate lesson for our current situation.

Having not eaten all morning since I needed to fast for the procedure, I was feeling a bit nauseous.  The drive didn't help and as soon as Andy pulled into the hospital parking lot I had him pull over so I could get out.  I had Andy check in for me and they got me all set up with a hospital gown and a room.  I sat on the bed feeling very vulnerable and sad.  Andy was very comforting and we had a lot of time to talk (we never have time to just talk).  I ended up not going in for surgery until almost 2.  I had Andy ask Dr. M. if she would be able to tell the gender of the baby.  She said most likely not.  That was disappointing to me.  I was anxious as they wheeled me into the O.R. but was soon knocked out cold.  I had forgotten the feeling of going under...kind of nice :)

Next thing I knew, I was waking up in the recovery room and feeling really good.  

It was literally like an emotional switch had been flipped and I felt much more at peace.  A weight had been lifted.

I was able to leave in a short time and Andy and I picked up pizza for dinner.

Andy was so good to be with the kids the next few days as I recovered.  I rested up quite a bit, read, and did last minute online Christmas shopping.
I still have my moments but for the most part I can keep it together.
And now, it makes me happy to think of a sweet little spirit up in heaven waiting for our family :)

Novemberfest

Honestly, I don't feel like writing much about this...even though it was a good experience for the most part, it is over and I mentally need to move on.

I will mention some things and let the pictures tell most of the story....and I apologize now for my blurry phone pictures.

Thanksgiving evening, my sweet mother in law and sister in law helped me set up my booth.  My wonderful brothers came and were very helpful also {I needed to get a picture of them.  Jo is hiding in the back of this first picture}.

My very kind dad built the posts for me to string the banners from  on each side of the booth.
They worked perfectly!

We had two nine hour days.  The awesome ladies mentioned above and my own dear mother took turns in coming and helping in the booth.

It was so interesting to see what sold the best.
The bright chevron chalkboard banners (in the center of the table above) and the multi colored chalkboard ones to the right were the most popular banners.  Which is funny because the bright chevrons were some that I made early on and almost regretted it later thinking that no one would want that bright of colors.

The St. Patty's (in the second picture from the top and also on the table below) were the most popular holiday banners.
All but one of the 47 scrubbies that my friend made for the booth sold.
And the beautiful ornaments that my mom and sister made {I'm kicking myself for not getting a better picture of them...the couple that I took of them are so blurry they're not even worth posting :(  You can kind of see them in the third picture from the top hanging on the trees.  I wish I had a close up though.}...anyway, they sold really well also...they're all gone as of a few days ago when my sister in law's mother in law asked for all the ones we had left so she could do a small tree with just these little, quilted ornaments :)
I also sold all of my burlap table runners with lace.  I really liked how they turned out so I'm glad other people liked them too!

I'm really pleased with how the booth itself turned out.
I received a lot of positive feedback from people about my banners and to me, that's almost as good as a sale.
I also have to remember that part of my goal was to just get some awareness out about Dravet Syndrome.

Over all, it was a good experience but it was so much work to prepare for and it took me away from my family too much.  And of course with things like this, you never get back what you put into it.
So, I'm glad I did it once for the experience, but I really don't think I'll ever do it again :)

A BIG thanks to everyone who helped and supported me in this endeavor!
I appreciate every little bit!...and so does Ben :)

Thanksgiving 2013

We had plenty of cute, little turkeys at our house for Thanksgiving.

My talented Mother in law created this whole gaggle.

Matt's creations throughout the month.

Abby's

Look at this cute, little chunk of a nephew of mine!

Ben got kind of scraped up a couple of days before while attempting to get the mail.

We hosted Thanksgiving this year so that I would be able to set up my booth at Novemberfest later that afternoon.  My in laws were so willing to provide all the food and help with the booth.  It worked out great!

My talented Mother in law has a talented daughter that created the decor for the kids' table.  Thanks Jenny!

Andy receiving instruction from his dad on the finer points of turkey carving.

After the meal was cleaned up we loaded the van with all kinds of craft fair going paraphernalia and the rest is material for another post.