Our New Years Eve Christmas

It took us a few days after getting back from Iowa to settle in to our routines, unpack, and prepare for our own family Christmas. The night before Andrew, Nathan, and I got the wrapped presents we had been hiding in our closet arranged under the Christmas tree.

We all slept until after 8:30 (a huge perk of going from central to eastern time) and even then Emily was in no hurry to start the morning.  We made it through breakfast before Emily even realized that there were presents under the Christmas tree. We took advantage of the moment and I called lots of doctors offices trying to find someone that would accept me as a patient as well as talk to a nurse about the increasing pain in my abdomen.

Emily was great to help find us gifts to open.  I love how she helped Nathan open his presents and read his books to him.

We took our time opening presents, letting Emily enjoy each one.  It was a fun morning, especially because she is so appreciative and excited about everything.

Andrew designed a bear that he is in the process of 3D printing with holes in it that she can sew buttons on to (with a needle, buttons, and spools that he designed and is printing as well).  He gave her a piece of paper with the bear on it and she LOVED the paper.  She said she would sleep with the bear in Emily’s bed. I love both their excitement about the gift and how much Andrew loves creating things designed just for her.

The last gift Emily opened was a pink computer we gave her. When she opened it she first stated what it was and just looked at it, but it quickly grew into full blown excitement as she ran over to the table and set it up to start typing.

We were so surprised and grateful for all the fun surprises and generosity for our little family this Christmas from our extended family.  My favorite parts about Christmas this year were Emily asking to turn on the lights of the Christmas tree every morning and exclaiming without fail, “Pretty!”; talking about Jesus so much with Emily on a daily basis and the story of his birth; having Andrew home after the semester ended; watching Emily be so sweet and inclusive with Nathan.

Once we had finished our Christmas celebrations I headed to urgent care as directed by a nurse but was quickly turned away because I had been too sick in the hospital just a few weeks previously. They told me to go to the emergency room, which I didn’t want to do because I knew I wasn’t dehydrated or even that sick yet – I just didn’t want to be that sick again. After calling the nurse back she also insisted I head to the ER based on symposms and recent history. I returned home and Andrew and I scrambled trying to figure out the best scenario for this next ER trip, with neither of us feeling super enthused.  In the end Emily went over to a very generous friend’s home while we did six hours in the ER. Nathan once again slept through the majority of the adventure.  They ran the tests and sent me home with a starting antibiotic with the assumption I had c. diff.  When had delicious homemade pizza with the same family that watched Emily (thank you thank you thank you!!!) and headed home to bed, celebrating the New Year around 1am when Nathan woke up to eat.