A Very Merry Christmas!

This year was new for us.  We stayed home and did not travel.  Most of the Strong side of the family traveled to Boise.  We had a week of partying from Sunday to Sunday.  AshLee and Patrick were the first to arrive.  The girls really enjoyed getting to know them (AKA "Pretty AshLee").

Terrell cooked up the traditional Lutefisk and Potato Sausage.  After dinner and gifts on Christmas Eve, we played white elephant Bingo.  This has become one of my favorite traditions.  I was the provider of the gift that no one wanted this year  In fact, Roy kept paying it forward until we were finally stuck with it in the end.  I would imagine that gift will end up in the Bingo pile next year.  What is an ice cream keeper you ask?  It is a $40 (I paid $2 on clearance) plastic container that keeps ice cream frozen.  Who does not need one of those?

Kevin played Santa passing out the gifts this year.  He was joined by two very excited elf's.

Here are the elf's with their cousins AshLee and Patrick.

 

Sidney SO wanted a white Christmas this year.  It had been raining in Boise and all of the snow had melted off.  Sure enough...right after she opened her new coat from Grandma, she opened the door and it had been snowing outside.  Merry Christmas Sid!

The girls spent two solid days preparing a special gift for all of us.  They worked tirelessly on the backdrop (4 bottles of glue and several cardboard boxes later).  They sang songs from Frozen and put on quite a performance.  Kendall had even asked me to take her to the dollar store so she could buy a tiara for the performance.  She was even willing to spend her own money which is a true sign of dedication.

Kendall's prize gift was the Magic 8 Ball she won at Bingo.  Now she has help making all major decisions in life.

The girls received some very fashionable shoes and clothing this year.

Grandma and Papa got them Nerf Rebelle guns.  They had hours of enjoyment hunting down Cody and Kaden.  Now I keep finding targets throughout the house.

Hannah gave the girls a very special gift with a very special package.  If you cannot read it, the verse First Timothy 6:1 is written on the bag.  "Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds and to be generous and willing to share".

Kevin was scheduled to have chemo #3 the day after Christmas.  We showed up in the morning, and they drew his blood first thing.  Then we sat for nearly 3 hours.  Of course, I started to get frustrated and impatient that they had not come and started his infusion.  About that time, the nurse came and got us to see the doctor.  As it turned out Kevin had the trifecta...white blood count low, neutrophil count low and platelets low.  They decided to hold off for a week so that he does not get Neutropenic (susceptible to common illnesses).  The chemo combination that they are giving him is Folfox.  It contains Oxaliplatin.  He is a big guy, so they give him a big dose of Oxaliplatin.  Apparently that is the culprit.  We will try again this Friday!

The Music Recital.

Kendall and Hannah are both taking piano lessons from Miss Diane.  She is an amazing woman with tons of patience and a heart for kids.  She held a recital for both of our families.  She included all of the kids. 

 

 

The kids waiting in anticipation for the recital to begin.

 

Sidney told the story of The Friendly Beasts through felt characters while Miss Diane played the piano and sang along.

Asher sang a song.  Eli played his guitar.  It is a bummer that I do not have a picture because he looked really cool,

Hannah played beautifully.

 

Kendall played a song on the piano then sang Auld Lang Syne (aka the New Year's song).

 

Kendall had learned Auld Lang Syne from her school music teacher.  It was one of the songs they sang for the second grade music program.  Again, no good pictures - Gah!

It was so awesome that Diane thought of doing a recital with the kids.  They all had a great time performing.  She taught them to introduce their selves and to play with "nerves".  It was great.  Afterward we had a cookie exchange with friends at the Nelson's.  Then we went to my work party.  We partied until almost 10pm that night  Big time for us!

Kevin had his second round of chemo that weekend.  He did so much better.  The medicine that we had to combat the symptoms worked well.  He has been quite tired this week though.  He is resting up during the rainy weekend as we have LOTS of family coming into town for Christmas.  It will be a good time!

Smartie Pants and Santa's Girl.

We received a letter that stated Kendall was getting an award, and we were invited to the assembly.  We showed up early to get good seats.

We were so proud of our girl as she received the Academic Achievement award and a ribbon for good attendance.

Here she is along with other award winners.

 

And in a new development...Sidney had her first picture with Santa.  I am still shocked.  Of course, I had to sit between them to cushion the blow.  We went to my work Christmas party not long after this and she also accepted a gift from Santa by herself.  What progress!

Partying Like Rock Stars!

Kevin celebrated his 44th birthday this month.  The girls made him a chocolate cake complete with sprinkles and candles. 

 

Lisa came down to celebrate and got him very special surprise.  The girls could hardly stand to keep the secret.  Kendall finally caved in, "What starts with 'L' and sounds like zimo?"

 

A stretch Limo.  It started out as a foggy night, but we toured the town in style.

 

The Nelson's joined us for the evening.  The limo was complete with cookies, soda and champagne.

The girls enjoyed greeting everyone as we drove by.  It was particularly fun when we drove downtown.  They sang Christmas carols out the window and received a lot of "Merry Christmas's" in return.

The adults relaxed and enjoyed the ride.

 

 

We stopped in front of the capital steps and took a picture with the Ginormous tree.  There is no way we could get a picture of the entire tree.  We would have looked like tiny ornaments.

Christmas Deocorating and the Festival of Trees.

Friday after Thanksgiving, we decorated our house for Christmas.  The whole family took part in decorating.  We were so thankful for all of the kindness that our family showed us and for helping us with some of the things that we have not been able to do the past few weeks!  Kevin passed out the ornaments while the girls hung them from the tree. 

Kevin and I have had the same artificial tree since the first year we were married (17 years ago).  We finally broke down last year and bought a tall pre-lit tree at the end of the season.  My dad help put the tree together.  He also did the honors of placing the tree topper on.

 

We could not bear to part with our old tree, so I did a theme tree.  Last winter I made a bunch of photo ornaments.

 

It was awesome to pull out each of the ornaments and walk down memory lane.

Our nurse navigator had sent us tickets to the Festival of Trees this year.  Kevin had a pretty rough weekend, but he wanted the girls and I to go and check it out.  We had a great time.  The girls stopped at the tattoo station first.

Then they sat and had a great conversation with the talking tree.

 

We toured the trees, and the girls posed for pictures with some of their favorites.

The belly dancers were performing while we were there.  The girls were mesmerized.  Kendall turned to me about halfway through and said, "It is like they are telling a story."  I must say, they did a very nice job.

This was as close to Santa as Sidney would get.  I did not push the issue.  Of course, after we left she asked if we could go back and see him.  No way.  All talk, no walk...

Kendall carried on a lengthy conversation with Santa.  He said that he had visited her school last year.  He was kind enough to wave to Sidney from afar.

Thanksgiving Celebration.

We had a great group of friends and family over for Thanksgiving.  Aunt Stephanie let the girls open their Christmas gifts early, since she will not be here at Christmas.  One of their gifts was a pair of "attitude" glasses.  Apparently, they are all the rage.  Only my fashion forward sister would know this.  We teased Kendall that she looked like Sally Jesse Raphael.  We had to show her pictures to substantiate our comments.  They have worn the glasses almost every day.

We set up two tables for the adults to sit at.

Kendall sneaking a few M&M's off the dessert table.  Hard to believe this crew went through two whole bags of those tasty treats in addition to all of the other goodies. 

 

Here are the adults enjoying dinner (photo courtesy of Kevin).

And, the crazy kiddos.

Asher giving Sidney reindeer antlers.

My mom stayed with us the week before and did almost all of the prep work.  It seemed that she worked tirelessly making pies, cinnamon rolls, dinner rolls, pumpkin bread and much more.  Thanksgiving would not have been the same without her!

It was so good to be surrounded by the people we love!  The guys worked around the yard and helped decorate for Christmas.  Kevin started chemotherapy the day after Thanksgiving.  Round 1...not so good.  A lot of learning's!  It will go better the next time.  Let's just hope I never run into the on-call doctor that we had to deal with.  I will give him three snaps in Z formation with a few head spins and bulging eyeballs.  The wrath of Heather will come down on him.  That is a story in and of itself that if I thought I could tell it without a whole lot of color I might.  However, I know my limits and will leave it at that.  We had at least 4 phone calls at the beginning of the week apologizing for that knuckleheads actions and the needless suffering that Kevin had to experience this first go around.