Christmas Eve we had our traditional early dinner of snacking foods and appetizers before heading to church for the worship service. Ever since we chose to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in Madison after Kate was born, we have loved attending our church family's Christmas Eve and Christmas Day services. As some friends described it recently, our church home has a unique, warm atmosphere to it. Celebrating holidays with our worshiping community is creating special memories for our family.
After church, it was a struggle to keep Mr. Ethan awake on the way home. The silly boy had fallen asleep in the car both Monday and Tuesday, but didn't ever get a real nap. He even snuggled on my lap for most of the church service :) Once home, we were each able to give one special present and play for a little longer before sending the tired ones to bed.
Our kids rarely ever sleep in, even if they are up late, so the pre-7:00 wake-ups were nothing new on Christmas morning. We sang Happy Birthday to Jesus, ate muffins, and exchanged most of the rest of our gifts with each other before worshiping again.
No one even balked this year about going to the Christmas Day service! It has taken much intentional teaching on our part, but our kids honor Christmas for its religiousness and for its impact on our faith.
Matt and I had reserved our main gift for the kids until after church, because we didn't think we would be able to get them to leave the house once they saw it. Based on how the rest of the day went, I think we were wise to wait.
The main gift for our kids this year was converting part of our basement into a kids' gym. I know, I know. We're crazy.
Here's the rationale, though. First, the more access Anna has to the kinds of equipment that might be found at a therapy clinic, the better; the more time she spends out of her wheelchair moving around, the stronger her neuro-muscular connections become. Second, Kate is an active kid who has always needed more physical outlets than our other kids. However, it's not necessarily realistic to pack everyone up to go swimming, or to a bounce house, or a trampoline park. Often times Anna just has to stay in her wheelchair in those kinds of places (except swimming, of course, but that one takes a lot of work on our part). Third, why not? Our kids enjoy stretching themselves physically, but also know their limitations very well, so we can trust them to be safe (famous last words, right?). And besides, it's fun.
So Matt has been working for the last couple of months to hang a few different swings from the ceiling, as well as building a slide that fits over our stairs. Yep. We're crazy. But it's so fun.
The kids were thrilled yesterday. Kate and Ethan spent a long, long time running up the stairs and then sliding down. It's been a long time since we have seen the two of them quite so winded.
The platform swing is good, too. Once the newness wears off for Ethan and Kate, we will be able to use that one more with Anna, since we included it mostly for her.
Kate loves the trapeze bar.
Part of the basement floor is covered in mats now, too. Needless to say, the basement has been a hit for the last 24 hours. We were actually most surprised at how active Kate was the entire day yesterday. Perhaps this kid has needed more physical outlets in the last couple of months than she has had.
We have nothing scheduled today. Matt had a few modifications to make on the slide; we had some cleaning to do before my parents come tomorrow; and the kids have plenty to keep them occupied. We are looking forward to the time we get to spend together in the coming week.
Merry Christmas!
1 comment:
How cool!!!
Post a Comment