Thanksgiving Friday

   This year I worked for 12 hours on Thursday, November 28th. It was a good shift, but I told Michael I wanted to celebrate Thanksgiving at home on Friday so we could enjoy the whole day together. After Michael got out of bed (at Noon!) I ran a few errands, including picking up Emma's inhaler meds, but then had to wait around while the pharmacists corrected the order since the doctor only prescribed it for one month instead of three. A) Our insurance will only cover 3-month supplies of certain meds. B) The less trips I have to make to the pharmacy the better. 

   Back at home, Emma allowed me to dress her up in last year's exact outfit so I can get some "now and then" photos to really see how much she has grown. (For stats: Her last height and weight, taken on Halloween, showed her at 17 pounds, 5 ounces and 25 3/4 inches.) I looked up some crafts that I could do "with Emma", such as coloring pages. She wasn't really into that and cried when I held her hand to draw since she just wanted to keep throwing the markers. The lines on the baby turkey photo were were her own hand/arm movements. At night I started another craft with a pinecone, popsicle sticks, washi tape, and a hot glue gun. It's not finished yet. Maybe it will be by next November! 

   Earlier in the week, I invited my friend Alex (we work together) over to our house since her husband is out of state for a few weeks and I wanted her to have a good Thanksgiving too, and Michael said it was fine for her to come over. I wanted her to be able to meet him and Emma as well, so I'm really glad it all worked out. She was at our house from 5pm-10:30pm and we all had a nice time together. She brought a Spam and cream cheese cracker dip, pumpkin flan, brownies, and drinks with her! I really liked that she watched us do trach care last night and she even moved closer to see how I hold the trach in while Michael cleans around her neck. Emma got a butt soak before her treatments since she unfortunately has a terrible raw spot and diaper rash right now. She cried when Michael put her in the water, but within a minute she was laughing and splashing so much that I had to hurry to get extra towels and he used the syringe to empty some of the bath water. 

   We ate at 5:30pm yesterday, but I wonder if we ate around 4pm last year since in that blog post it shows that we went for a family walk after dinner and it was still clearly light outside. This time the sky got dark as we started eating. 

   ^^ Turkey hand card we made last year. Don't mind all that drool!!
And, yes, in the next two pictures, she put her glasses at that weird angle by herself.

   ^^ Bend and Snap! AKA the Grab and Throw!

    Had to make sure Emma got a "full meal" too.
This year we decided that ordering from Honey Baked Ham would be the same amount of money, if not less, to get them to send us the food, so that is what we did this year. We ordered a ham, green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, corn bread stuffing, and gravy. Michael also vacuumed the whole house while the food was cooking, and I cleaned the bathroom before Alex came over.

    Last year I was bragging that Emma could balance while sitting for a whole five seconds! Now she is able to sit for 20-30 minutes at a time!! I wonder if next November she'll be running around the house in the AFO's (ankle braces). Only time will tell and we're not rushing it.

    Since there were so many of us who had to work on Thanksgiving Day, we had a potluck, so I brought some extra stuff home to fill the table (and our tummies) such as meatballs, mac and cheese, turkey slices, salami/ham/cheese squares. I also bought a box of Publix chicken wings that morning for Alex because I wanted to be a good co-host and make sure she had enough food that she would enjoy eating while at our house.

  I hope everyone had an awesome Thanksgiving!! It was a really nice one for us. I already know that I am scheduled to work next Thanksgiving too, so we will have another Thanksgiving Friday then too. Michael really likes having holidays "just us", but to me (and with influence from all the recent commercials and Hulu ads) it shows that Thanksgiving and Christmas are all about families being together, so I told him that my parents will come down to celebrate with us next year! It was really nice when I got home, seeing all of the cars lined up along the street, spending time with their loved ones.