My FAVORITE Christmas Story...

This photo does not look like much, until you know the story...

Micah was finishing up decorating Christmas cookies for Santa, and I went upstairs to tuck Hannah in and give her a kiss goodnight. I went in and the above scene is what I found...

I said, "Hannah, why are you all covered up by your blanket???"

Hannah: "Mom, the song says that I have to 'cover my head'."

Me: "What song? Sing the song for me."

Hannah: "Here comes Santa Claus, Here comes Santa Claus..."

Me: "That song says to cover your head?"

Hannah: "Yes... Giggling, but very emphatic!"

I laughed, kissed her goodnight, and let her stay under her blanket.

I then went down stairs and googled the lyrics to "Here Comes Santa Claus."

Here they are:

Here comes Santa Claus, here comes Santa Claus,
Right down Santa Claus lane
Vixen and Blitzen and all his reindeer
Pullin' on the reins
Bells are ringin', children singin'
All is merry and bright
Hang your stockings and say your prayers
'Cause Santa Claus comes tonight!

Here comes Santa Claus, here comes Santa Claus,
Right down Santa Claus lane
He's got a bag that's filled with toys
For boys and girls again
Hear those sleigh bells jingle jangle,
Oh what a beautiful sight
So jump in bed and cover your head
'Cause Santa Claus comes tonight!

Here comes Santa Claus, here comes Santa Claus,
Right down Santa Claus lane
He doesn't care if you're rich or poor
He loves you just the same
Santa Claus knows we're all Gods children
That makes everything right
So fill your hearts with Christmas cheer
'Cause Santa Claus comes tonight!

Here comes Santa Claus, here comes Santa Claus,
Right down Santa Claus lane
He'll come around when the chimes ring out
That it's Christmas morn again
Peace on earth will come to all
It we just follow the light
So lets give thanks to the lord above
That Santa Claus comes tonight!

--------------------------------------------
Am I the only one who has sang this song their whole life, and never 'really' new the lyrics??? Hannah is sooooooooooo literal, and she was so serious about following the song's instructions and 'covering her head'! I have not laughed this hard in a long time. Leave it to Hannah to make my day GREAT!!!

I will not forget this moment for a LONG TIME!!! :-)

Jonas Christmas Eve...

These photos of Jonas are priceless!!! It was great having him here for Christmas this year! Even if he really did not have a great grasp of what was going on...

 

 

 

Christmas Eve Festivities...

Micah was very into decorating cookies for Santa this year!!! He was convinced that Santa and his helpers would eat all of them... I told him that he might be saving his appetite for other houses too. There were about 20 cookies set out for Santa. I NEVER throw food away, but my stomach could not handle any more sweets! So I threw a few away, and then I took a huge bite out of one from Santa, and then 2 little bites out of 2 other cookies to represent the elves... Micah thought that was really cool. Then, Santa left the rest for our family to enjoy.

Quote of the Day...Or Season...

Hannah: "MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM, Luca keeps SCREAMINGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!" (Say that very whiny and VERY LOUD, and you will get the gist...) "And we are supposed to have PEACE and GOODWILL!!!!!!"

Ryan and I: (Laughing hysterically!!!!!!! :-)

Oh, if only ALL little brothers knew the "rules" to Christmas...


BTW: WE ARE HOME AND HAVE POWER.... Merry Christmas to us... Ryan's Parent's power just came on about 30 minutes ago...

Scrambled or Sunny-side Up???

Luca's BACK!!! :-)

No longer a baby...

How is Jonas getting soooooooooo old, and grown up looking??? The baby I picked up in May, is no more. He is growing like a weed and is eating me out of house and home! I attempted a hair cut last week, and I think it is decent.

Tanya--I am not as good as you yet, but I think I might have potential. I wanted to edge it really nice; you know, like Will Smith's hair, (lol...) but Jonas does not hold still without a lolly pop and I was doing it in the tub. He was not impressed, and I am VERY anal! So after the bath, I rolled him up in his towel and tried to finish. It is by nooooooooooooooo means perfect, and is somewhat asymetrical, but for my first try at this, I feel pretty accomplished.

You can be honest... How does it look? You will not hurt my feelings!!!!

NEW MUSIC...

If you have stayed this long to be reading this, you will notice some new music. This song I am playing is tribute to our weather in Indiana today...

We are at a WHOPPING -2 degrees F right now...

Doesn't that just make you want to visit us... :-)

I am also sure that Jonas probably thinks that we have brought him to the 3rd level of 'cold hell'!!! Poor baby!!! :-)

I hope you are warm where you live! We are staying warm, but are just not going outside...

BABY IT'S COLD OUTSIDE!!!

Still No Power...

This house is just a few blocks away from us. Trees are down everywhere, but this was most impressive to me!!!!

Day #4, and still no power... We are all better now, and have been puke and fever free since Saturday afternoon. As of this morning, our house is a steamy 40 degrees F. All of Micah's fish have died. He is handling that really well. He saw them this morning when Ryan went to check on the house, and he said, "they were all standing on their noses..." :-)

So, since we feel we are not a threat anymore to getting people sick, we will head down to my parents today and wait it out there. My grandmother has been there since Saturday, and we did not want to risk getting her sick.

The kids are all sleeping well, and have adjusted to skipping around to different houses very well. Hannah thinks this is just one AMAZING slumber party fest!!! :-) The kids are all VERY EXCITED that we are going to be staying at Grammie and Pop-Pop's house indefinitely.

About Santa... Oh the lies I am weaving now... lol... I told Micah that if we are not back into our house by Christmas Eve day, then we will write Santa a letter and 'overnight' it to the North Pole, telling him where we are staying. I told him that Santa is very smart and flexible, and this will not be hard for him to do at all! ;-)

Please be praying for the people of Fort Wayne and the surrounding areas. I think there are approximately 50,000 customers without power. That is a lot of people!!! I am just so thankful that this is Christmas Break and Ryan has these next 2 weeks off. There are a lot of perks being married to a teacher!!! His vacation time ROCKS!

My parents to not have the internet, so I will try to post some pics from this last week before we leave our friends' house today.

Homeless and more puking...

Yes, you read that right... we are officially homeless. Our power went out yesterday around 11am, and we have been without it since. We stayed at our house until about 4:30 yesterday afternoon, but it was getting too cold for the little ones. We were going to spend the night at Ryan's parents, and then they their genterator went out. They got it back up and running, but we had already called friends and headed over there. (Thanks Truesdale's!!!)

When we left last night, our house was 60 degrees. When I went to check on the house today and turn the faucets on a teeny bit, to prevent freezing pipes, our house was down to 49 degrees. BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR...

Right before Ryan went to the car to get Hannah out last night, she puked... Yep, she did not escape the dreaded stomach flu... So, here we are; all SIX of us; getting ready to invade our friends' house and Hannah pukes... HI... WELCOME HUBLEY'S... :-) And then, Ryan started feeling yucky too!

We were there until after dinner tonight, and then we moved to our friends, Megan and Eric Kelly. They do not have any kids, so we can only get them sick... :-) We had to leave Truesdale's because Ben's dad and mom are coming in tonight, and his dad does not have good health. It would not be good to get him sick! We can not go to my parents, who live 30 minutes south of us, because my 88 yr. old grandmother got to their house today, and we cannot afford to get her sick either!!!

So, we will be at the Kelly's until we are all healthy for over 24 hours, or until our power returns. I do not think that the power will come back for the next few days... There 1/2 inch of ice on EVERYTHING, and we are expected to get snow and winds up to 40mph tomorrow and probably more power out... So, once we are healthy, we will head down to my parents to wait this out...

This really brings a new meaning to Christmas. Is this how Mary and Joseph felt? No where to go... I am just soooooooooo thankful that we have great friends that will take us in, despite the stomach flu!!!

Christmas at The Ronald McDonald House...

Saturday morning I woke up the kids and told them that I had a surprise for them... Really, only Hannah and Micah had any idea what I was talking about. After I got Hannah and Micah dressed I told them that Mia (a great friend of mine) was coming over and we were heading up to The RMH in Chicago for the day. Micah does his bowel and bladder treatments at Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago, and we stay at the RMH while we are there. They were sooooooooooo excited and wanted to know details...

I told Micah that there were going to be 2 VERY special guests there and I wanted him to guess who. He guessed Ronald right away, but was stumped by the second guest. Here was my clue, "Who is the first person that you think of, when you think of Christmas?" He thought a few seconds, and then looked at me very questionably. He said with a lot of question in his voice, "Jesus is going to be there?" I almost laughed out loud and then quickly caught myself!!! I said, "No, not Jesus, but I am sooooooo glad that He is who you thought of first!!!" Okay, who do you think of second... Then he thought of Santa. (Don't ask me why I was surprised about the Jesus response, I just was...) Who is the bad parent now??? :-) I guess I was surprised that what we are teaching is actually rising over secular Christmas and advertising!!!

So, we all get ready and head to Chicago. The kids did great on the 3 hour drive there, and we were so excited to see all of our friends from the RMH. Micah has been on first name basis with the workers and volunteers since his first stay back in 2005. Our first stay was for a month, and all of our stays since then have been for 2 weeks each time. We are always outpatient, so we get to be at the House a lot.

The kids were very excited that McDonald's had catered, and that there were LOTS of goodies... Micah did a craft with Make A Wish volunteers. Then Ronald did some things with the kids. After Ronald, Santa came and every child was speechless!!! All the kids gathered around, and he had a large bag of presents for each of them...

Jonas fell asleep right as Santa came, so I don't have any pics of him with Santa...:-( I realized when I got home...no pics of Jonas at all... sorry!!! I was busy keeping track of the 4 of them, and did not take a lot of pics... The quality of the photos are not great either. I used our video cam to take pics, and they are just not great. they are supposed to be high-res, but I am just not seeing it... :-)

I HATE BEING SICK!!!!!!!!!!!!!! BLECK...

I don't have time to be sick... But, I have been puking since Sunday morning. Micah got sick Saturday night after coming home from Chicago. Luca was sick with it last week, and hopefully it does not spread any more. Ryan said that his stomach was feeling kinda rumbly this morning, so I am praying that he does not get it too... Hopefully Hannah and Jonas miss this batch too... I have done so much laundry, scrubbing, and spraying of Lysol!!! I would open up all of my windows, except it is like 20 something outside right now. Welcome to the wonderful germ cycle of winter in the North!!!

I am mad that I am sick. Doesn't God know that I don't have time for puking and sleeping for 24 hrs. straight??? :-) What REALLY makes me mad, is that I had to miss our annual Philharmonic Holiday Pops concert yesterday!!! We have been taking Hannah to it at Huntington University, where I teach, since she was 3. This was going to be Micah's first year and they have both been talking about this for weeks... I love the Fort Wayne Philharmonic, and I LOVE the Holiday Pops concert. Just hearing all of the instruments played to perfection, and all in unison, just gives me the chills!!! They always do great renditions of classic Christmas tunes, and it is just always gets me into the Christmas spirit.

I thought that if I drank some water and got a bath that I would feel better. Well...after I drank some water, I ended up puking it all up in the toilet. Hannah was in the bathroom, and she said, "Mom are you throwing up?" She thinks it sounds so funny that when anyone pukes, she loves it and laughs... :-) I said, "yes, Please call for daddy, I need some help." So humiliating!!!! One thing that is funny...our bathroom is so small, that I did not even have to get out of the bathtub to barf in the toilet...

So, I did not end up going to the concert...Ryan took the kids and they had a blast... I love that they love this type of music, even at such a young age! Ryan said that an older gentleman was sitting behind them and after the concert (2 hours long with an intermission), and after it was over he told Ryan that he was very impressed at how are kids behaved through the performance. That says a lot to me, especially coming from an older generation!!! So, we must be doing something right??? :-)

Ryan stayed home this morning to get the kids off to school. Luca is napping and Jonas is down too. Man, just writing this is making me tired! How in the world can I be tired after sleeping so much???

I am too tired to proof read, so hopefully it is not too bad... :-)

I will upload pics from Chicago soon...

Jonas's Eye Exam...

Well, the morning did not start off so well... He was not very happy when I dressed him and put him in the car with no milk to drink. There were tears all the way to the hospital, and then for about another 10-15 minutes. I guess he just realized that food or drink were not in the picture, and he was a perfect camper. Thanks for all of your prayers... :-)

God is definitely in all of the details!!! Our nursed walked in and she looked soooooo familiar. For those of you that know me well, I know a lot of people. I just LOVE people... She started talking to me and said that she has adopted a son from Haiti. Then it clicked: We met last February, before Jonas was even home, at a Haitian get together in Lafayette Indiana. She adopted a boy named Desimond from Heartline Ministries a few years back. It was so cool that she was my nurse, and we kept getting off tract talking about Haiti and adoption.

WE LOVE OUR EYE DOCTOR!!!!!!!!! She came in and chatted, played with Jonas, and just talked to me a long time. Like we were her only patient today; even though we weren't!!! Dr. McCabe... YOU ARE THE BEST!!!

Jonas had to have a series of eye drops put in his eyes to dialate them. He was not a fan of this, but made it through. The nurse carried him back and he went to sleep. No IV's today, just gas.

Here is his eye report summary from May, right after we brought him home:

Normal: corneas, iris, lens, retina, and retinal vessels.
Optic nerves appear pale with possible cupping, but unable to assess well.

Today's report: PERFECT EYE EXAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Absolutely nothing wrong with any eye structures. So, what does this mean for Jonas's vision... He still has the brain damage to the occipital lobes of his brain, that will not change. But, there are about 40 other vision centers of the brain that we can tap into with therapies, etc., and try to reteach the brain to see in a different way.

Will he ever have normal vision...No, minus a complete healing from God. But, any vision is soooooooooo helpful and now there is not anything blocking messages going through the eye to the brain. The messages just get scrambled up in the brain and don't return to the right places.

With his diagnosis of CVI(Cortical Visual Impairment), his vision can improve to about age 8-10.

This was a great day, and a great appointment!!!!!

Once again, thank you all for your prayers....

**Sorry, no pics from today... You would really think that a photographer would remember that, right!!! :-)

Jonas...

Jonas has an eye exam under anesthesia tomorrow. This has been planned for a couple months now. It will give the eye doctor a better look at his eyes. It is wayyyyyyyy toooooooooo hard for me to hold him down while she tries to look in his eyes. I think it is inhumane too! Hannah has this done once a year, and it takes about 10-20 minutes top...

I will let you know what the outcome is tomorrow. His eyesight has gotten better since coming from Haiti, so we will see if Dr. McCabe sees any difference.

We have to be there by 8am, and he will be taken back around 10am. This is a long time for my food lover to not eat!!!! He is growing like a weed, and has to be NPO after midnight tonight. He did great for his last surgery so I am praying that tomorrow will be the same!

Here are some fun pics that I don't think ever made the blog... Isn't he the cutest bumble bee ever!!! This was Micah's costume, and Micah looked like a honey bear stuffed in a bumble bee... :-)

Update on Santa...

So, Micah got off the bus and I told him that I had a super huge surprise for him!!!! He asked if it was a special snack. I love that something that simple could be SUPER for him. I showed him the letter, and we read it, and he was in awe!!!! He kept saying, "Oh my gosh, how did they know I lived here???" He went on and on and on. He has taken it with him everywhere tonight to share. We stopped over at Ryan's parents, and they made a HUGE deal about it too. I believe the letter is going in to school tomorrow to share with his friends. (Which is everyone in the school...even all of the adults... :-)

The one thing that really caught me was when he said, "Mom, he really is real!!!!!" With the biggest smile on his face...

Our scanner is not working, but if I can find the letter online somewhere, I will post it. It was not hand written, so I am wondering if it is a form letter from a sight. In any case, I think that it is totally cool that someone down at our Post office wants to make Christmas VERY special for these kiddos!!!

Micah is going to FLIP!!!

I just got the mail, and saw something very peculiar...



Micah wrote his note to Santa about 3 weeks ago when he saw "exactly" what he wanted at CVS. I know, CVS of all places, but the item fit him to a "T"! Our children are aloud to ask for one thing from Santa. His item was under $20.00: very nice!!! :-)

Someone at the post office must write all of the children back that write to Santa??? How cool that! I am just as excited to see what is inside as he will be! I am the BIGGEST KID at heart.

I know, some of you are thinking, "I can't believe that you lie to your kids and tell them that Santa is real!" Well, this is what we choose to do, and they know that not all of their friends believe in Santa, but they still choose to! It is soooooooo innocent, and soooooooooooooooooo much fun! I know that Santa is not the true meaning of Christmas, and believe me, Jesus gets all of the time he wants in this house!!! :-)

To see Christmas through the eyes of our children is AMAZING!!!!!!! Micah gets into any holiday, but he REALLY gets into Christmas in particular...

I cannot wait until he gets off the bus to show him what arrived for him in the mail today!!!!!!

More updates on Santa later...

They sent another one...

Jonas really cracks me up in this one!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

While I was at work...

I am still at work, and will probably be here until midnight grading final projects. Ryan just called me and told me that he and Micah sent me an e-mail. Here it is:

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

He said that Micah was cracking himself up. I can just here it now!!!! So you may ask: "Where did Ronald McDonald come from?" Micah got to see him 2 summers ago at the RMH in Chicago. They were celebrating 30 years of existence, and Ronald made his appearance for a couple of hours. I am sure Micah will be telling me about this all tomorrow morning!!!

Well, off to grading so I am not here to wee hours of the morning.

Jonas's Dedication...

Remember to turn off the blog music...

Jonas's and Witlene's Anointing...

Remember to turn my blog music off...

All in the details...

I am not going to make this simple thing all spiritual, but I do not think that this is a coincidence!!! Anna bought Sacramento Shirts for all of my kids when she was out here visiting. I was washing Jonas's tonight, and I happened to look at the tag. Can you believe what it says... "Made in Haiti"... How cool is that??? A gift from Sacremento that was made in Haiti. Just like him... :-) I looked at the other 3 t-shirts and 2 of them were made in Honduras, and one was made in Pakistan. Crazy, right???!!!

God is in EVERY detail...even to the small things like a tag on a shirt!!!

 

If you click on the photo below, you can see it really good. I think it should say, "100% pure sweetness/ Made in Haiti"

 

Update on the below video...

Laurie W just let me know that the sound IS working on the video below. Okay, now that I know that there is nothing wrong with our video upload, I will explain the end of the video...

At the very end, Hannah says, "Mom, what is Christmas?" What you don't hear at the end is Hannah saying, "It is where we celebrate Jesus's birth!" Just wanted you all to know that we have not kept the 'true' meaning of Christmas from our kids... :-) Sometimes she asks questions that she totally knows the answers to. Sometimes I think she just talks sometimes just to keep her mouth moving... :-) I have been known to tell her that my ears get a 5 minute time out. :-) I know, I am such a bad mom. But seriously, the girl does not stop talking from the moment she wakes up in the morning until the time she lays her head down at night!

That was the biggest adjustment for her when she started 1st grade! She would come home and say that it is sooooooooooooooooooooooooo boring not being able to talk at school...

I sure hope that her future husband loves to listen... :-)

Now that I know the videos are uploading good, I will start posting some great ones...

How do you decorate your C-mas Tree???

So, here is our Charlie Brown Christmas tree... We have had to put it up on a table the past 2 years so Luca did not totally destroy it. Last year after Christmas, we went up to Chicago to visit long time friends for New Years. Anji and I hit Target after New Years, and got sooooooooo many unbelievable deals. So, this year the tree will be decorated in all non-breakable ornaments.

Micah started to decorate it Monday night while I was at work. So, Luca seeing a job unfinished, decided he would help yesterday. Normally this would not be allowed, but I was trying to listen to a representative from the School For the Blind and Visually Impaired. She was up to do an evaluation on Jonas. Also, Jonas's therapists were there.

For some reason the sound did not load with this video, but I think it makes it a little more nostalgic of years past. I love our high-8 videos of when my sisters and I were younger.

What are you having for dinner???

We are having Taylor Pork Rolls:



For all of my Eastern PA friends, or friends that visit the New
Jersey shore: I am cooking my last package of Talyor Pork rolls
tonight for dinner... :-) These make me miss the beach and Ocean City, NJ
sooooooo much. So, longing for some warmer weather, and missing the
Eastern side of the country, I am cooking these. This will be Jonas's
1st exposure to this 'delicacy'... :-) He will love them: nice and
salty!!!

I only get these when I see my aunt and uncle from Allentown. She
buys me a bunch to freeze up, and usually they last a few months...

(BTW: Jonas ate 2 and would have wanted more, but I did not totally want to grease his insides... :-)

This was by no means a 'healthy' meal; but it was REALLY yummy!!! I eat mine with tomatoes and mayonnaise. Some people like to eat them with melted cheese on them and mustard... To each his own...

What are you having for dinner???