Our poor kitty ....

Took Mittens for her first vet visit today .... our little space cowboy ...

Always cool as a cucumber ....

Turns out she’s had an infection in her front leg from a bite (we think), and the abscess (that we had no idea about), ruptured a couple days ago and she’s been licking it.  Still happy but taking a lot of fur off, we wanted to make sure it didn’t get infected.  

The vet was very surprised that she was able to flush out the wound and give her some pain meds and antibiotics via needle without much trouble.  She’s a sweet kitty.  Hopefully she is on the mend now ....

***UPDATE***

Mittens was given a 3 day slow release pain reliever (also known as a opiate), and she has never ever been this loving!!  She is so purry, and sweet and I guess she is pretty feeling dang fine :-)

Christmas Day 2019

Isaac was still feeling pretty lousy, and with all the emotional things happening with our close friends and family, it was hard to get rolling out the door that afternoon.  There was a moment we thought we would keep Isaac home and not be able to go ... but we gave him a Tylenol cold and flu pill and he perked up enough to go .... but he did have a nap about an hour after we got there.  Here is Marg playing Santa and passing out all the gifts ... as always, everyone got spoiled ...

 Chris likes babies ... here he is with Faten's new little boy ....

 We said the Burdges could get Isaac the Ukulele he asked for as that seems to be a special theme they have going on....he takes extra special care of the things he gets form grandma and grandpa .... so here he is - very happy opening his brand new ukulele ....

Margs face as he is opening it up .... happy grandma.... ;-)

Dinner was around 7, and dinner is always so good .... we ended up heading for home just before 9 .... still takes almost an hour to get home ....

Christmas morning 2019

Isaac didn’t wake up til after lunch so Elliot had a bit of a solo morning opening his stocking and a couple of his main gifts!

He got the 3Doodler pen that he asked for ... I am betting money that he won't use it after this week .. stay tuned.

My present!!  For a moment I felt pretty nervous that I would be out-gifted this year since I got him base layers for hiking, and that was it.

I was not outgifted ... it was a $30 table from a going out of business sale.  Still happy ... I put it together and it looks good.

After a couple main gifts, we put it back on hold to open when Isaac woke up .... Elliot was bummed as he wanted to keep going ... here he is cuddling his next gift ...

Isaac finally got up ... still looking quite wretched .... poor kid

Elliot made a little scavenger hunt with origami mushrooms and he had me buy Chris a Tims Card to hide with them ... super cute.

Christmas Eve ...

Elliot has a sense of humor that is so funny .... found this today in the kitchen ... "I like you a ladle bit"

And Trent sent me his updated calendar for his concussion ....it was a good week last week ... but so far, this week looks like garbage .... he says the vertigo and dizziness is pretty bad...

And to add insult to injury .... here is Isaac ... 3rd day down ... he gets out of bed to have a hot bath and then go back to bed .... he is laying down here watching my favorite movie with me "Big Fish"....it has been his only extra stop today other than his bed or the bathtub.

It has taken me all day (yes, I am slow, and a bad wrapper), but I have been watching over isaac, wrapping presents and watching Netflix all day .... it wasn't how today was supposed to go, but it is how it went .... no idea how tomorrow will go.  But we are together ... but my thumbs are a mess ... worried about my family, Laura, Trent, my sister, missing my parents .... and it's always a little bit more stressful when my kid is sick ... Chris has been knitting up a storm for the family ... right now he is in there doing up some wrist warmers for Laura .... he has done some beautiful socks for his dad and a Jeep hat for Trent (I hope Jenny and Marg don't read this tonight lol) .....so ... here we go Christmas 2019.

Letters to my folks for Christmas ....

Just wanted to document what I wrote ... love my parents ... Mexico was amazing .... counting the days until I can go back ... if only I could find a flight not 18 hours long ...

Merry Christmas mom ….

Well, you are having Christmas in Mexico with your sweet husband.  You really are living the dream … though I can appreciate that it would be THE dream if Carrie and I were there too with our families.  I do think it is a good goal for next year.  

I really had such a good week with you mom.  I love your sense of adventure and how you just make things happen.  It was a nice break to just follow behind and turn my brain off. It has been a total re-immersion since I got back on that plane.  It feels as though everyone has something really significant and really hard happening in their life. Whether it is relationships, or illness …. So many of my close people are struggling.  It doesn’t help that Isaac is so sick either … it actually seems to highlight the struggle.

Well, sorry...this was going to be a cheery Christmas letter as your Christmas gift because I really couldn’t find something for you to open while I was there.  I am not good (just like you aren’t) at buying something to buy something. But I know you like to know what's on my mind and heart … so here we are. Every commercial that comes on that is a touch sad (especially ones that have airport scenes with loved ones reuniting!), or Home Alone (1 or 2, doesn’t matter), I always cry when the mom reunites with Kevin at the end … or anything on TV that has strings in it … the violins always get me …. But tonight Laura texted and said she can’t stop crying … it’s like a faucet that she can’t turn off …. She has held it together for 2 weeks while dealing with Kerry’s diagnosis and her kids and all the details that go along with trying to love your person with an ocean between you.  I can’t help but feel her sister is my sister … I have a Carrie too, a Carrie I love more than anything too and can’t imagine this nightmare …. I care for Laura … and honestly don’t really know how she is upright. I don’t know how Christmas day is going to go … I have a bit of trepidation going into the day.  

Not sure I can relay to you how important that week with you in Mexico was to me.  I have so many moments in my head now that make me happy and that I am clinging to at this time.  Pictures like these:

Pictures like these are exactly why we vacation …. To be out of the routine and experiencing new things, and to have a week to myself was really a lottery win.  So this is my Christmas gift to you that I hope you open on Christmas day and think back to our week and smile and know that you have a daughter who will be thinking of you all day today while navigating some tough stuff and trying to spread sunshine in the lives of some people who are really struggling.  Enjoy your beach day and know that I wish I was sitting on that beach chair right next to you. One Mojito please!

Out with Laura ...

Laura and I took Kerry and Brandsons kids down to Victoria so that Brandon could take them over to Vancouver to be with their mom for the holidays.  Laura has been the main caregiver for the kids since Kerry went into the hospital on Monday, Dec 9th ... it has been a real whirlwind of horror, but Laura has been so strong.  Just making the plans, setting up life and gofundme pages, and still maintaining her own life with her own family.  We carved out a few hours after dropping the kids off to go to Willow Stream Spa together ... where we mainly stayed in the sauna ... for hours.  The attendent would come and re-fill the lemon water and add frozen clothes to the ice bowl outside the sauna for us .... in the end, Laura won.  I prize myself on being a real heat seeker...but any longer and I would have fainted....and she even put herself on the top shelf!!  (it's hotter up there!!)

After the spa, we went to Paggliachi's and shared some seafood fettucine and checkerboard cake .... then we walked around downtown doing some Christmas shopping.  Adding Christmas to this brutal chapter is like salt in a wound .... but she powered through .... Love this girl ... tommorow is going to be hard.

Isaac's Winter Formal with New Life 2019

Well, my beautiful boy has made some pretty cool friends .... here he is with his pals at the winter formal we had to rush back from Maui for .....

Max and his gal Dallis

The kid on the very right broke both wrists at the sleepover they were all at at Pioneer Pacific a few weeks back when he did a back flip of his friends shoulders ....

As always ... Isaac telling a joke or a story, with all eyes on him .... with some competition from Bens suit ... lol

Once home, Isaac, Reuben and Max went to the camp hottub until midnight and then slept in cottonwood like summer time .... he has had a good day.

Worried about the cat ....

Pets man .... for awhile now, Mittens has been babying her paw .... yet she jumps up on things and walks on it too, doesn't seem to be in distress and yet, continues to limp around ... I can touch everywhere from her shoulder down to the pads of her paw without her being any more standoff-ish than she usually is ... I have made an appointment for her to see the vet in early January if she is still limping around ....

Almost Home!!

Did you know it takes 6 hours to get to Maui, but only 4 to get home?  And because we left early from Maui, we were 40 minutes early to land too!!!  Thankful for only carry-on, we ran through customs and security and our sweet taxi driver got us to the ferry in time for the 7am ferry instead of the 9am ferry!!!  We all crashed at some point this morning ....

 He slept the entire way home ....

 And it is hard to tell from this picture but he woke up, saw where we were and skipped up the steps to school to see all his friends .... they were all apparently very happy to see him!!

 As for Chris and I?  We went home and crashed for the rest of the day .... and Elliot?  He didn't leave his computer ....

Hawaii - Day 6 - Final Day! Flying out at 10:50pm!

Soaking up the last of the sun at Big Beach today ... no snorkeling at this rougher beach, but we rented a couple of boogie boards that the boys had fun with! This kid preferred to stay on the beach on this trip and read his bible ... he is pretty engrossed and has completed it on this trip.  He started this summer in LTP and finished it this month ....

 Token holiday shot with the adventure necklace

 My three boys enjoying the warm water ....

 It has been really good for us to getaway this week ... the weather and the schedule (or lack of one), has been really great.

 Bored ... lol ....

 Shaved Ice on our ride out to the airport!  Our last sunset!!!

 Good Bye Maui ... you were good for our family but bad for our wallet .... we won't see you again for awhile since Mexico has won on all fronts except the language barrier .... but google translate covers that up too ... so goodbye ...

 Flew through customs easily enough .....

 Riding to the airplane ... these suitcases the folks got us all those years ago have held up super well!

Hawaii - Day 5 - Chill Day ....

Just a quick little shot of the morning coffee routine this week since my kids are sleeping in the main room ... 2 bedroom units will be our future because making coffee in the bathroom and creeping around so early without disturbing anyone isn't much fun ....

 Favorite times .... chilling by the pool with my books ....

 I popped my head back in later in the morning to this -- the place explodes when I am not around to direct and keep everything at bay ... please note the older teenager eating chips in bed for breakfast ... and how pleased the oldest Burdge looks ... sigh....

 Can't really remember what we did this day other than chill at the resort, but we must have ventured out at some point for haircuts for the boys ... Isaac has a winter formal on Friday and there will be no time to cut his shaggy hair before then ... Elliot though, glared at me every few minutes for putting him in this chair ...

 Can't beat the sunsets here ....