Christmas 2016: The Year of the Gifts

-
Because of my Vanderbilt chemo schedule, we had to cram all of the family festivities into 2 days. And while two days are not nearly long enough for holiday festivities, it was certainly better than not getting to be together at all. We did all of the important things: played games (Speak Out was hilarious and Ticket to Ride Europe was a hit), ate all the food (appetizer night on Christmas Eve is still the best), attended a Christmas Eve service, ate Whitey's ice cream, and sang Christmas carols at bedtime. Work schedules got in the way of holiday travel for Michael and Micah, which stinks because it's not the same when we're not all together. I would say we had extra hugs but no extra tears this year.

Even though our family goes light on the gifts, I call 2016 the year of the gifts because, well, they were pretty spot on. In addition to my new iPhone 7 (because my 5 died right on time for Christmas), Brian gave me blue tooth headphones (for all of my podcast listening while I clean house), awesome Born booties, and an amazing LED light to add light to my indoor photos (the best $10 ever spent). Brian and I bought iPod nano shuffles for both kids, and they are spectacularly in love. (And, let's be honest - they think they've received access to a personal mobile device, but in reality all they've gotten is music so score one for the parents here.) Camden received a set of twin daggers (don't even ask) from his Uncle Michael and Aunt Liz that brought him to tears because he was so caught off guard.

(Would it be too cheesy to say that our best gift was being together?)

Becky is both a Norwex and Lipsense dealer so we all received cleaning products (this is actually more exciting than it seems) and lipstick (Rory and Addison especially loved experimenting with the lipstick), but the best gifts were the canvases my mom painted for all the grandkids. I know how much thought she put into choosing what to paint and what verse to use for each personality. Rory is especially looking forward to hanging hers up since we're painting and redecorating her room this year.

Brian and I left early Monday morning to return to Nashville for chemo on Tuesday. The kids stayed for an extra day. Becky and the boys drove to Nashville to spend an extra day and a half with us, and that helped make the short 2 days at Christmas feel a bit better. I had to miss the official Boxing Day shopping trip, but Becky and I made a quick mall trip where I found the matching black boots to her brown pair.

These last few days of Christmas break are pretty low-key. We're finishing up the last of the Christmas cookies, not cooking, wearing pj's all day, enjoying our gifts. Next week will be the first week with a work/school schedule in addition to chemo, and I am imagining that this new reality will take some adjustment. I am so grateful for Christmas break to help ease us into it.

Links to previous years:

Untitled

DSC_3764

Untitled

Untitled

Untitled

Untitled

Untitled


Untitled

DSC_3832

DSC_3835

DSC_3881

DSC_3886



DSC_3523

DSC_3798

DSC_3650

DSC_3559

DSC_3696

DSC_3743





Comments

Monica said…
Your Mom is an AMAZING artist! Those are great!!!
8:56 PM
Christine @ 12,450miles said…
So many things to LOVE about this post!!! The gifts, the family, the canvases, the photos you took... LOVE IT ALL. I agree that two days is not nearly enough... but it looks like an AMAZING two days! :) Happy Holidays, my friend!
6:10 AM
Amy said…
I feel like I blinked and all of the Hale grandkids are so grown up!! Love that picture of you and Becky together and the one of your brother with the kids. 💗
8:46 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Scoop

-
Our meeting with Dr. W today was fine. Not encouraging, but fine. I don't know why I expected better news, but I think it's hard not to hope that the bad news you hear is somehow wrong; that they've somehow made a mistake. Basically, the cancer is still the same as prior to chemo. Possibly a little larger, but he said it was hard to tell. He was glad that it had not returned to my bowel or colon (because that was a large part of my initial surgery), and my chest and lungs are still clear (apparently, this is the next place the cancer would go). It does not change my stage of cancer (still 3c), and remission is still a possibility, but he said that it would be very tough to get there.  There are several more drugs that we can try, which is good, but unfortunately they each have a success rate of only 25%. It's a little too early to be considering clinical trials because hospitals who hold the trials like for the patients to have tried the more main-stream drugs firs
Read more

Late Night Ramblings

-
Image
1. Thanks to Andrea for driving me to chemo today. I'm always a little anxious on the way in and the very few times I've had to drive myself, it's been a little lonely coming home. But not today. 2. A fellow chemo patient today thought I was in my 20's. Score.  ("score" would be a term I'm borrowing from Becky ) 3. I did not wear a scarf today to chemo, and all the nurses and doctors did a double take since they didn't recognize me. So wierd. I recognize me with hair, bald, and with a little puppy fluff. 4. Dr. W. is adding Avastin , a new drug which will help prevent cancer cells from growing, to my current Gemzar routine. Good news is that it won't make me feel any worse. Bad news is that in a small percentage of patients it causes severe side effects involving blood clots, kidney failure, ulcers, and holes in your bowel. Good times. 5. I've been instructed to head directly to my primary care doctor for blood pressure medic
Read more

Scenes from the Soccer Field

-
Image
So I may not have apologized yesterday about the number of pictures, but I am definitely going to today. Because  coughcough thirty coughcough just might be excessive. And probably my family will be the only ones who look at all of them. But I don't care. :) By the way, we completely lost and did not even score a goal yet again. Rory tried really, really hard. This team was head and shoulders bigger than we are, way more coordinated than 4 year olds should be and their coach kept their A team in the entire game. Even after scoring some 15 goals. Oh, well. Rory still enjoyed herself. Which way is the goal again? Notice her position in this picture. Notice how she passed the girl next to her? No, I am not competitive at all. Not sure where the other team is. Oh, wait. There they are. See how much bigger they are? You'll notice she almost always runs with her mouth open. Either that or her tongue hang
Read more