I helped Ann (finally) "mail" her letter to Santa on Christmas Eve - I assured her that he would still get it in plenty of time (because, you know, magic).
Christmas Eve traditional crab dinner. Todd and Tanner "joined" us at the table while we ate.
Ann got some "reindeer food" from preschool (it looked like it consisted of oats and glitter). The instructions said to sprinkle it on the front lawn before going to bed on Christmas Eve, so Ann and I went outside to make sure the reindeer didn't go hungry that night :)
It was a windy and chilly evening, so it got sprinkled pretty quickly.
The cute newlyweds
Tom and Ian hanging out waiting for our Christmas Eve program to begin.
Tom's dad read the nativity story from the Bible
We didn't act it out this year, but Ann still pretended to be Mary and grabbed a doll to be her baby Jesus.
Getting ready to sing "happy birthday" to Jesus (I don't know if this tradition will ever *not* feel weird to me). We used left over cake from the wedding family dinner.
Ann and Ian posing in their new Christmas pajamas (the rest of us got new socks)
Showing Aaron the fun that is "carpet skates" (basically plastic that you strap onto your feet so you can easily slide around on carpet)
Ann helped me set out some milk and cookies for Santa
Stockings filled and hung once the kids were in bed (and after we'd had the chance to video chat with Todd and Tanner - it was pretty awesome that we were able to get permission to connect with both of them at the same time so they could talk to each other as well. With all of the time differences, it worked out that we started to talk to them at 10pm here on Christmas Eve, 8am Christmas morning for Tanner, and 3pm in the afternoon on Christmas for Todd).
Ian's "Santa" gifts (just the vacuum and ball, not the doll :)
Ann's "Santa" gifts - just exactly what she'd asked for in her letter to Santa - a bike and helmet and a toy horse (which she later clarified that she wanted a pink horse).
Christmas morning - gathering in Grandma and Grandpa's room to wait to go upstairs to open all of the presents
Ian checking out his gifts
That vacuum was a hit! He loved pushing that thing around all morning (it still gets played with almost daily, even now)
Ann was very excited about her new bike. We let her ride it around upstairs since there is so much open space
Opening a surprise gift from Tanner. Someone he knew in Estonia just so happened to be coming to Las Vegas, so he sent some candy bars (as well as letters) to everyone.
Tom opening one of his presents (a box set of Studio Ghibli films), plus Ian munching away on a leftover "Santa" cookie (apparently Santa couldn't finish off all of the cookies so he left one or two).
Uncle David helping Ian open one of his presents
I think this was a present Jill gave to Aaron
Ian got his very own sunglasses. He was definitely a fan (oh, and you can see that the cardboard cutout of the twins joined us upstairs too)
So this is where the unexpected "adventure" comes in. Just after we finished opening Christmas presents, Ann hopped on her bike one last time before heading downstairs for breakfast. There are some back stairs in that big room, and she somehow managed to get too close to the steps when no one was looking and went down them on her bike (fortunately there was only 6 steps until a landing, so she didn't go down too far, and she also fortunately had her helmet on). She was in a lot of pain and said she couldn't move her elbow, so Tom's dad and I took her down to the emergency room.
The verdict was a broken humerus bone
She got a splint put on her arm with a referral to follow up with a pediatric orthopedic surgeon the following Monday.
Despite the annoyance of not being able to move her arm, Ann has been quite the trooper through this whole ordeal. She really hasn't let this slow her down much at all (only the occasionally complaining about not being able to do something). I've been really proud of her with how she's been handling the whole thing.
1 comment:
Oh no! Poor Ann! Did the orthopedic surgeon say that it needed surgery, or is a cast enough for her? That sounds so hard to be a little kid and have your arm in a cast. And combine that with your hurt foot. Rough times!
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