Christmas 2011

I've been dwelling on a draft post for a couple weeks now. Just couldn't get it finished, so I just deleted it! Instead, I'd love to tell you a bit about our Christmas. We've had a wonderful time.

We spent some time with my parents. Thursday before Thanksgiving we went and painted pottery together. My mom is so creative, I'm sure hers will turn out best. Doesn't she look cute painting?

I got to go to Luke's classroom party. I saw this hanging on the wall. It's a little hard to read, but "gesise" = Jesus. By the way, we got that angel from my parents and she's beautiful as she looks down into our living room.

Chris and I gave the boys a combined big gift this year - a gynormous bean bag. Here they are hanging out on it. Luke wasn't too sure about Mitchell rolling into him as he played his new game for the Wii, but there is definitely room for 2 or 3 or all 4 of us. It's huge and comfy!

We went to see our church's show called Awaited. We had our picture taken beforehand and have been singing the soundtrack from the beautiful performance ever since.

Chris and I had time for a night out downtown before Christmas. We have an annual tradition of sharing our list of top 10 things from the year. We had many of the same things on our lists, but some differences too. It's always fun to look back take stock and be grateful for the past year. I have to say though, I'm ready to look forward now. I'm really rooting for 2012 to be a great year!

We are afterall ending 2011 having had a bit of Mitchell-drama, with the MRSA infection, pnemonia and more. Things are looking better for him, but I did take him to see his rehabilitation doctor Thursday. Mitchell's tone is mixed and he hasn't changed stiffness is certain areas...until now. His feet have become very difficult to get into a flex position, meaning it's hard to get him in orthotics and be able to spend quality time in a stander. So the doctor has prescribed "serial casting" with Botox. Likely we'll do this in February. This on top of a denial from insurance for a new seat for feeding and positioning at home and an unexpected $3500 bill for his recent MRI (I will be calling about tomorrow!), I'm definitely trying to keep the positive in mind. It could be much worse, right?

The fun part is that my brother and his family aren't coming until next weekend, so we have more Christmas celebrating to do then!