As a matter of fact, there was a night that we were leaving the hospital, trying to beat the clock to get home for call, that Maddox asked how Santa was going to know what they wanted this year, since we hadn't seen him.
In all years past, our visit to Santa has been in the middle of the day at Bass Pro... free, no waits, and the same jolly/ friendly fella from the year previous.
With Maddox being in school however, family dates in the middle day are now extinct.
Santa came to Maddox's school but the flu kept us away that day.
So Lance decided that we could detour a bit and "run by" the mall for a pic.
It was the eve of Christmas eve and apparently "dog hour" too so the line wrapped through the Christmas tower, along side the rentable strollers, past the play area, and down to the ice-cream kiosk.
Over and over, we heard the people with the dogs complain that there were kids in the "dog hour" but we ignored them... and I bit my tongue.
Mostly because I was busy hopping in and out of line-- slipping into shoe stores-- to call patients back... and also because it seemed too obvious to to tell them that their dog actually had no idea that Christmas was 24 hours away-- however my kids did.
An hour and a half later, we made it to Santa...
who was the type of guy I'd rather my kids not lap upon... and certainly not for $30.
But what do you do?
We had invested 90 minutes of our lives before we even laid eyes upon the man and no where had I seen that there was only one $30 package to choose from. Take it or leave it.
So we took it...
and they took our $30...
and Santa didn't even ask them what they wanted.
Luckily the boys each had only one request, so they ran back over to tell him and the camera guy snapped a pic.
$30 well spent.
We spent Christmas Eve at Nana's, with presents, great food and mimosas.
We had 4 places that we were suppose to be at that day, but sometimes being an adult is getting to say, "we are doing the best we can..." and that's what we did.
We swung out to the hospital after Nana's.
The kids still have not been able to go back in Dave's room, so Lance and I rotate time in the waiting room --and I can not praise them enough.
As we were leaving the hospital that night, my sister spotted Santa and Mrs Clause coming out of the parking garage.
They came over to the cars and talked to the boys.
They told them how proud of them that he was and how much they had grown since last year.
He dug into his sack and pulled them each out a Hotwheels Car and Mrs Clause gave them each a candy cane.
Maddox asked them where they parked the sleigh and B was shocked that he still gave him a toy since he had been so rude to our elf.
(he hated when she would land on his toys so he would dump her off without touching her-- as to not steal her magic for Maddox, but still keep her grubby hands off his junk!)
The ride home was pretty magical.
Maddox spotted bright lights with red nosed the entire ride home.
He saw him land on Cook Children's Hospital, and he wanted to get home quick since he knew he was already in Texas.
The real Santa dozed off sometime before midnight and Mrs Clause had hell getting him back up.
I miss the days where a waking child wouldn't have been a complete disaster because my heart raced with the panic of a burglar while we worked our magic.
I hung a bell on his door, moved a huge toy in the doorway and hopped back and forth from the living room to the hall while holding my breath and tiptoeing with every move.
Lance thought he was going to put the basketball goal together for a surprise reveal, then realized there was too many pieces, then realized he couldn't fit it all back in the box without it looking like we bought it at a garage sale, so he settled for a backboard and rim.
I always feel weird about posting our kids' Christmas presents.
Guilty, or embarrassed kind of, which doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
Reality is that we don't even spend a fraction of what the majority of our friends do...
but I still hate knowing that mine got more than they needed when many woke up that day to none.
With that said, Christmas morning was as magical as I could have hoped.
Maddox ran in, immediately ranting about every toy of Beckham's.
"Paw Patrol! Playdough! Nerf gun! Beckham is going to love this!!"
I moved him over to his section where he held back his real feelings of disappointment when he whispered, "Momma, Santa accidentally brought the wrong Skylanders, but I still love it." (it was the one for an Xbox rather than the one for the tablet)
I promised that we could get it fixed and he went on to look at his other gifts...
We woke Beckham and they looked through their stockings and then opened their 3 outfits from us.
Lance said that he thought there was another present missing from us and pulled out a final gift to open together.
Maddox has mentioned over and over that he wanted to spend his money on an Xbox but I have swept the issue away, hating for him to spend such a big chunk of his savings on that.
When the Black Friday ads came out and I saw that Walmart was going to have them half off, I started asking him if he wanted to ask Santa for it.
He didn't.
He said it was too expensive so he would ask for the Skylanders set to play on our iPad.
He got Skyanders and Disney Infinity both (another Black Friday steal) and a Christmas Miracle when Lance and I came through with the Xbox!!
It was such an awesome moment of pure joy!! I am glad we did it!!
Maddox bought each of us a gift from the Santa's Workshop at school, and we got to open our presents from him too.
A necklace for me.
A tape measure for Lance that reads DAD.
And a sticky guy for B.
My sister came over for breakfast and to play with the new toys and games.
For the first time in my life, we had no other place to go that day, so we spent the entire day in out pajamas, playing games-- Maddox showing us ball handling skills that we had no idea he even knew-- and breaking in the Xbox.
We have been back to the hospital twice since Christmas.
My kids got to play with their cousins so they were happy as clams.
Today is my dad's birthday.
We called and wished him a happy day and he said he was having one indeed.
David was placed in the care of an infectious disease doctor today, and had a pic line placed to help fight his infection more aggressively.
The good news worth sharing is that he can wiggle more fingers today and has not had fever in 24 hours.
The bad news is that he is still producing infection despite IV antibiotics and antibiotic pearls placed directly in the wound and we still aren't sure if he will be released to Home Health to fight the infection and then bring him back to reattach the muscles and ligaments--
or do the repairs first, and release him to home after.
There is still a long road ahead.
And once they both come home,
We will have Christmas at Gigi's... pic line, traction and all!
No comments:
Post a Comment