The kids are back to school today. Hooray! Amy is in a walking cast which means that I only have to make ONE trip to the school each day. Amy was home from school on the Friday and Monday after she broke her leg. That Monday night, December 4th was her school Christmas concert and she was anxious to attend. Mostly to show off her cast and wheelchair and only partly to sing. While the rest of the class stood up on the stage, Amy and her two singing partners stood on the main floor in front. Pretty much the center of attention-and she liked it that way! As the concert was ending, Santa Claus arrived, much to the excitement of the children. But as Amy succinctly explained afterward, “First the kids went to see Santa and then they came to see me!” She basked in the attention. Chris and I were grateful for our first successful outing in the snow with the wheelchair.
Amy decided to try a half day of school on Tuesday. I dropped her off at the school, very handily making use of my new handicap parking tag (gotta really love that). And two hours later I received a phone call, “I have to go to the bathroom.” So I got back into the car and drove to the school to take her to the bathroom. The next morning, we left for school early and headed right to the bathroom upon arrival. She was going to get a quick lesson in how to maneuver into the bathroom stall and onto the toilet all by herself. And thus began the cycle for the last two weeks of school before Christmas holidays: I drove Amy to school each morning; loaded her in to her wheelchair; and helped her get to her classroom. On Tuesday and Wednesday of that week, I picked up Amy at the same time that I picked up Misha from kindergarten. By Thursday she had had enough of that and was ready to stay at school for the full day.
Amy had plenty of helpers willing to help push her around the school and be a part of the wheelchair excitement. She came home one day with her cast covered in signatures of her friends and teachers. She wasn’t able to go outside for recess during that time, but didn’t really seem to mind. Her teacher, Miss Place, was great at making sure that Amy was out in the front lobby at the end of the day when I went to pick her up. It was amazing to me how fast I became frustrated at people who blocked the handicap parking spot or parked there when they shouldn’t. It gave me a new appreciation of what people must feel who park in these spots all of the time. Finally, the last day of school arrived, and I was soooooo grateful.
Amy’s birthday came and went during this time. The excitement for that day was a doctor’s appointment to make sure that her leg was healing as it should. Grandpa Kline flew in for a mega short stop at our house. I think he arrived around 4:30 pm on Monday the 11th and left shortly after I left to take the girls to school Tuesday morning at 7:40 am. And, bless his heart, he came when he was sick!
That’s a lot of news about Amy, so let’s just say that Misha was both a saint and an angel to her bigger, bossy sister who had even more reason to “request” Misha’s help. Most of the time Misha brought things for Amy without even being asked-especially her crutches.
The girls had Christmas vacation for two weeks plus New Year’s Day. Chris was off for the last week of that time. Though he undertook the task of scanning all of his family and mission pictures into the computer and spent a lot of time at his computer. Didn’t seem a whole different than if he was working.
I planned a special dinner for Christmas Eve. Normally we would go out to dinner on Christmas Eve (our tradition has changed from Chinese food to going to Olive Garden), but since Christmas Eve was on Sunday, we stayed home for turkey and all the fixings. The girls were impressed with the napkins folded like a fan and wanted the table to be set fancy every night. After clearing the dinner away, we had a special evening planned to talk about the birth of Christ. The girls always enjoy following along with their felt nativity pieces. After that we exchanged our traditional pajamas and Kristen was off to bed. She goes to bed around 7:15 now which is a wonderful treat. The girls weren’t quite ready for bed, so they got to watch tv in the guest room for awhile.
Once we finally put the girls to bed, we brought the presents down from my closet and the Santa gifts out of hiding. Chris had hidden Amy’s bike in his trailer in the side yard. With all the snow from the days previous, it took a bit of effort to dig it out.
Talking about snow, we experienced two blizzard-like snow storms. The first dumped close to two feet and the second storm about 10 inches one week later. With drifting and blowing snow, we had some areas that were almost as tall as Christopher. It took us literally hours to dig out from the first storm and then days after to recover from the sore muscles. The next storm wasn’t quite so bad, but by then, I believe I had lost my enthusiasm for shoveling snow.
Christmas Day was wonderful. I, of course, was up early to exercise. Chris thought I was nuts, but I just told him that it is a Christmas present to myself to keep on exercising. Amy woke up shortly before 7 am and Misha was still sleeping soundly. However, Misha was out of bed faster than you can say “Merry Christmas” and ready to go. We like to record their expressions as they come downstairs, so I made them sit on the landing of the stairs with their eyes closed until Chris made it downstairs. The excitement just builds that way. Kristen wasn’t awake until 7:30 so the girls were able to check out their stockings and see what Santa brought them. We mostly relaxed throughout the day and ate leftover turkey.
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