The Christmas that almost wasn't

It has been so insane here for the last few weeks, I began to wonder if we would ever have a Christmas together as a family. Where do I begin? OK, at the beginning....

On Tuesday, 12/11 Jon's grandparents flew down to Florida to spend the winter at their Port Richey home. When their plane landed, grandpa collapsed and the flight crew had to perform CPR. He was transported to a nearby hospital, with grandma in tow. Thank God he stabilized, though they did about every test that they could think of to find a cause.

When we found out what had happened, Jon's mom, Natalie and I caught the quickest flight we could to Tampa. We arrived at the hospital around 1 am on Thursday morning. Grandpa was released on Sunday morning. And after some long and heated conversations, he agreed to come back home to MI. Now we had to try and find a flight that would have oxygen on board for him. Not an easy task.



We got a flight on Friday, 12/21. Jon picked us up at the airport and we drove across state to take his grandparents home. Jon's mom stayed with them, to get everyone settled in. I finally laid my head down in my own bed at midnight. Saturday was a blur. Sunday we picked up Jon's mom and took her home.

Now it is Monday, Christmas Eve! No tree, cards still on the coffee table, what gifts I have are still unwrapped. Jon and I decided that we were not buying for each other this year. Jon was still on the fence about getting a tree, but I whined about Christmas not being Christmas without a tree and how Natalie was old enough to really enjoy a tree. So, he relented and we set out to find a live tree on Christmas Eve. HA!!!! Easier said than done! Everywhere was closed. So we headed to the nearest WallyWorld. I thought that we might find a fresh one there. But again, no dice. We decided on a small artificial tree. I guess a tree is a tree is a tree. Well, when all was said and done, it looked adorable!


Natalie was as happy with this tiny tree as she would have been with a huge, live one. Ah, viewing life through the eyes of a child! I had forgotten the wonderous joy of Christmas. We went to Christmas Eve mass, which was beautiful. Sometime during the hectic evening, I came to realize that this was what Christmas was supposed to be about........rejoicing in Christ's birth, giving thanks for family and marvelling in the mysteries of life and love. Not the amount of gifts, the size of the tree or who got what from whom. I thank God for the opportunity to be with my dear family.


Christmas day was spent with Jon's mom. It was a relaxed, laidback kind of day. And it was wonderful!


On a side note, when we were in Florida. I was able to call one of our good friends, Michele, from our adoption travel group. She lives in Florida and she was able to get a hold of another Florida family from our group and we got together for a little impromptu mini-reunion. It was so nice to see our friends again. The girls have grown so much since we last saw them in June. It was amazing how much a child can change in 6 months!