Christmas in Iowa

Dave was on call Dec. 23 and it turned out he was in for an epidural in the wee hours through mid-morning on the 24th. Collin was up in the night and so I was short on sleep as well. Awesome, another holiday where we have rough nights and are late on the road to Mom and Dad's (Thanksgiving!).  

That morning before Dave was home, I got a text that Grandma (Elsie, my Mom's mom) was taken to the hospital overnight with shortness of breath. Mom and Dad had been there much of the night, and she was comfortable and they were waiting to hear from the doc again that morning. The initial problem was fluid on her lungs. Well...needless to say I cried. Quite a bit. And then stopped and had to get us packed up and ready. And then Dave came home and when we talked about it more, I cried more. I don't know what else to say except that my grandmother is incredibly important to me, I love her to the moon and back and I don't want her to ever leave. Yes, I know how rational that sounds, but logic doesn't push out my emotions lately (ever?). 

The plans changed from everyone gathering at Wellington Place (where Grandma is in assisted living) to my parents house with people stopping by to visit her at the hospital. We arrived at Mom and Dad's around 4 p.m. Us four adults were so very tired and I could barely keep my eyes open and honestly was not looking forward to an evening with a bunch of people. But of course, we got some sweets out and once everyone started showing up, I felt much better:) We had a great time visiting with my cousins, aunts and uncles. Kate played (bossed around?!) Madi and Cayla. Collin tagged along:) Then we did a gift exchange game which was pretty fun. After more visiting, the crowd left and though late, we started to get ready for our little Brown family Christmas. 

Face timing with T,T & Q

Hi Quinn!

Gifts!

I remember vividly the late, late nights when we would stay up at our house and open gifts after having the big family all at Grandma's. It is a little different these days with super young ones:) We Face timed with Okinawa while we opened their gifts and said Merry Christmas as they headed to the beach!! 

Cutie pie!

A jewelry box with a ballerina!

We had the kids open their gifts first and then put them to bed and had the adults open theirs. It was pretty fun with kids at age 5 and almost 2. Collin would be so into one gift, he didn't really care about opening the others. Kate was all over everything:) The kids went to bed super late and without a fuss and we had a nice time opening our gifts. Again, such thoughtful and fun gifts! It was so late when we were done. But of course there was more to do! Right as Andrew and Kylie were leaving, Collin woke up and so I went down (in the basement to see to him) and the others went to work cleaning up the mess and helping Santa:) I was so nervous Kate would get up with all the noise and go upstairs and catch them in the act! As I've said before, it is so nerve-wracking to keep up the Christmas....magic:) 

Somehow we are still standing, Merry Christmas Eve!

After awhile, I got Collin back down (3 a.m. but the others were up til 2:30 a.m.!) and came up to see the stockings filled...all was well. Collin got back up at 7 a.m. and I pushed Dave out of bed to get up with him. I slept and figured I might miss the kids seeing their Santa stuff but hoped Dave would get me before too long. Around 8:15 I got up and realized that everyone was still sleeping! Collin and Dave had watched tv and played but he hadn't noticed the stockings (not surprising) and so we tag-teamed it again. Dave slept on the couch and Collin and I played and waited for Kate to wake up! She didn't wake up until almost 10 a.m.! I heard her coming and was able to wake Dave up in time to see her reaction (priceless) and we had them open the gifts that we brought (from Santa - it's complicated) and then Gma and Gpa came down and we opened the rest of our stockings (Santa stuff that Mom bought). It actually worked out pretty well and we had a lovely, lazy Christmas morning. Gpa made pancakes and after a brunch meal we took naps and got ready. We were going to head to the hospital and see (Great) Grandma as we didn't have time the day before.

Christmas morning! playing with his new tools

We both had some lefse while we waited for the others to wake up

Collin climbed up on sleeping Daddy, it didn't last too long:)

Santa brought her an Elsa dress!
She kept telling people that she told him she wanted it when we visited him at the library:)

Opening the rest of the stockings

Andrew and Kylie came by and we all went down together. The hospital was rather empty on Christmas Day! It was good to see her and she was doing pretty well considering all that had happened. She loved seeing the kids, of course...oh. I forgot to mention. Kate was in full Elsa mode - wearing her new dress and with her Elsa braid. So that was quite a sight at the hospital:) Collin was pretty antsy in the small room, so we took turns running down the halls with him. We were only there an hour and she started to indicate wanting to rest. More visitors were coming later and I didn't want her to get completely overwhelmed. I didn't want to leave, I'd love to just sit there and nap with her and watch tv, but oh well. 

I'm sure this happens every day at the hospital...

I think she was teaching him to say Elsa

(Great Grandma was transferred up to Mayo today (Dec. 29) for more tests and to meet with a cardiologist and others. We'll learn more in the coming days and decisions will be made soon. What a blessing to have a large family and everyone around to help, participate and support one another. Grandma -sorry, I always flip between referring to her as Great or just Grandma - seems to be dealing with it all okay. We all know she would rather be back home at Wellington!)

After saying goodbye to A&K in the hospital parking lot, we headed back to Mom and Dad's and packed up to head home. A very quick and busy 24 hours!  The ride back to Wisconsin was rather tiring, I dozed while Dave drove, the kids watched Mary Poppins;) and napped. We arrived back at our place around 8:30 p.m. Whew! 

I would have to say it was a pretty exhausting and emotional Christmas but, once again, filled with wonderful memories, great conversations, magical traditions and a lot of love.