Our tradition has required some very deliberate coaching whenever people ask our kids about presents that Santa will bring; we usually say that St. Nicolas already visited our house in early December. It was amazing how many people would ask them each year about Santa's visit. Last year Anna was good about answering those questions on her own.
The whole tradition seemed to take the focus off of getting presents on Christmas morning and put it back on celebrating Jesus' birthday and giving special gifts to each other. We like it; it works for us.
Each year St. Nicolas surprises the kids with Christmas ornaments, a bag of chocolates, and some kind of family gift. One year we got a little trampoline; another year brought snow tubes. By last year, the girls were wise to who actually brings the surprises, but they still think it's fun.
This year Anna and I set up the Christmas tree and Christmas decorations, pulled out the Advent wreath and devotions, and brought back into circulation the Christmas books and nativity set as a surprise for the rest of the family for when they got home on Saturday night.
Sunday morning St. Nicolas left a note on our front door, in addition to the traditional chocolates and some new ornaments. Yes, we know St. Nicolas Day isn't until December 6, but the kids didn't have school on Monday so he visited our house early.
A trip to Kalahari was by far the biggest surprise that St. Nicolas has given us, but after the year that we have had, Matt and I thought we all needed a mini-vacation ... something fun that would provide a few non-medical memories for our kids for the year 2014.
After church we packed everything up while Ethan and Anna took naps, then drove the hour or so up to the Dells. We learned that 60 minutes in the van is about Anna's limit for travel right now. Besides the actual drive, another reason that makes traveling challenging these days is the amount of extra stuff we need to bring along. Here's just a sampling ...
We settled ourselves into our handicap accessible room, pumped Ethan and Kate up with snacks, then headed to the waterpark. Matt and I decided that our expectations for the excursion, especially for Anna, were very, very low. If she managed 15 minutes in the waterpark, we'd be happy.
Turns out she lasted almost an hour (hooray!) before asking to go back to the hotel room, although not all of that time was in the water.
The smiles on our kids' faces on Sunday evening while they were playing made the whole experience worth it to us. To put this trip in perspective, it was the first time all five of us went somewhere fun (i.e. not the hospital, church, school, or a store) all year. Yep. We needed it.
Anna loved sitting on the edge of the kiddie area splashing with her feet, sitting in the shallow spaces to play with the fountains, and floating along on the little kid lazy river. She was a trooper.
The other two kids were awesome. Kate and Ethan started in the kiddie area playing with the fountains and smaller slides.
But they soon outgrew that location and moved on to the medium slides.
By the time Anna and I headed back to the room, Ethan and Kate were climbing up several flights of stairs to the highest waterslides they could do independently. I guess Ethan really likes the water; the only time he cried was when it was time to leave on Monday.
We knew our kids would also enjoy just playing in the hotel room so each girl brought along a few stuffed animals while Ethan got to bring along some birthday trucks. All were pleased with their choices.
Sleeping on Sunday night was relatively normal, which is pretty good for our family at a hotel. However, relatively normal means that Anna was up by 5:30 a.m.; this child has never had the ability to sleep in when she needs it. We woke the other two up at about 7:30 and headed to Cracker Barrel for breakfast. Our time at the waterpark on Monday morning was not nearly as exciting as it was during the previous evening, mostly because the kids were all physically tired. Poor Ethan was having trouble climbing a single flight of stairs after his adventures all the way up on Sunday night.
We came home shortly after lunch. Ethan got in a good nap, but not Anna or Kate. To make matters worse, by the time we were approaching home on Monday, Matt could tell he was coming down with something nasty. He woke up Tuesday morning with a fever and cough. Yuck. We had to rearrange a few parts of the day since he was scheduled to take Kate to school on his way in to work (Anna had therapy from 8 until 9), and also since Anna needed to come home early because she was still exhausted from the trip. But we're muddling through, even if today hasn't had particularly good moments.
All in all, the trip was worth the effort and energy. We are glad for the memories.
Time for prayers
Thanksgiving
Please give thanks that our family was able to take a mini-trip together. Please thank God that things went as smoothly as they did.
Please thank God that Matt's family had safe travels to and from the funeral last week and that they were able to make some good memories together.
Please give thanks for the flexibility from school today.
Please thank God for the therapists who are working with Anna, both in school and out. We are grateful for their experience and perspective.
Requests
Please ask God to help Matt recover and protect the rest of us from this nasty bug.
Please pray that Anna's cough subsides. We're not sure if it's the same thing that Matt has, but coughs trigger her gag reflex quite easily.
Please continue to pray for all of those who are working with our family (school, medical, rehab, etc.).
Please ask God to heal Anna's oral sensitivity and increase her oral strength so that she can begin to eat food again, and enjoy it.
Please continue to pray that Anna's treatments are 100% effective and that she experiences few, if any, long-term side effects from the treatment.
Thanks again, for your continued support and prayers.
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