A Christmas of Ups and Downs

Good morning! It feels like I have not written in my diary forever. It has been a crazy few days. First and foremost I should let you know that Christmas went off spectacularly - even for our resident Jewish school girl. The kids could not have been happier with their gifts and have had a great few days of good whether to enjoy them outside. When outside was not good enough we have all enjoyed playing Wii fit inside. For some reason everyone takes great joy in watching me play the Hula Hoop game. Hey, I might look funny but I am the only one in this household with a 4 star rating. Jealousy will get them nowhere.

Unfortunately, we have also spent some significant time up at the hospital. It turns out that Grammy (my grandmother and the kids great grandmother) has developed pneumonia. It all start off innocently enough with a cough during the first few days of her visit and just got progressively worse. After putting it off for as long as we could we finally gave in to the hospital. Although her time their has not been particularly restful she, for the first time yesterday, was beginning to show some improvement. We are hopeful that she may be discharged in the next few days. Pneumonia can be ugly so we are obviously happy that she seems to be responding so well.

Finally, last night we had an accident around the house. Get ready to cringe.

While Lynley's parents are visiting all of the twerplets are sleeping in the same room. This usually leads to a fair amount of giggling before bed time. It is just like a sleep over and the kiddos just can't seem to get over the excitement of going to bed. It usually takes a few trips to their room to get them all settled and asleep. Well, last night, as I was going to check on them for the last time I opened the door. The problem is that Graham was standing right behind the door. Somehow his toe got caught between the bottom of the door and and the floor. The action bent back the majority of his big toe nail upon itself and left a bloody mess. I called for help down stairs and scooped him up into my arms. It was painful to look at. We made it down to the kitchen sink where Lynley (and I must give her credit here) went to work on Graham's toe. As always she was calm and collected. Once we got Graham under control I made my way back upstairs where the girls were still screaming in horror. I let them know that Graham would be okay but they would not believe me until they saw him again. Within about 10 minutes Lynley was carrying him back up the stairs. His foot was completely bandaged and his tears were drying up. Graham handled it like a champ. He did better than I. He will eventually lose his nail and I am quite sure that he will have some difficulty walking on it for the next few days but if we can ward off any infection I am quite sure we can get through this without too much more drama.

Well, I know this was not necessarily the post Christmas summary that you were probably looking for but at least we are all accounted for. It could have been much worse.

For now, I am back to my purpii.