Dancing Through Life: Christmas at Home, 2019

I enjoyed my blogging hiatus from the past three months, but feel like it is time to update before the topics get too piled up. We'll start with Emma's Santa Baby photo shoot on December 23rd. I like these even better than the ones we took last year. They are sillier and happier, and we baked brownies for Santa this year since we didn't have cookies. This was Emma's third Christmas, but her second one at home since we were at the hospital in Michigan for Christmas 2017! I believe this night was when Emma and I laid down on the floor at night, with only the lights shining in the tree, while we continued my tradition from the past few years of listening to Lea Michele's rendition of O Holy Night.

& here is this year's Christmas card photo that was mailed out to all of our family and friends:

***********************
Christmas morning ~ We actually celebrated on Christmas Eve because I was scheduled to work all day on the 25th and 26th this year. Crime never sleeps! I didn't want to have to rush to open presents on Christmas Day after working twelve hours, but still have to take my shower, do Emma's treatments and trach care, and trying to get to bed on time to wake up at 5am for work again the next day. I wanted to have the whole day to enjoy the holiday, so I told Michael we would celebrate the day before.

^^ Emma says, "Hands off my toys, Daddy."

Michael ordered the same meal from Honey Baked Ham as we got for Thanksgiving, but we didn't make anything else to eat that night like we did to fill up the table in November.

***********************

Some photos from after Christmas:
On Sunday, December 29th, my best friend, Mia, was at our house, but only for about 45 minutes before I had to take her to the airport so she could fly back home to Denver. I got to spend 17 hours with her that weekend- mostly in Gainesville-, which was nice, but also a bummer compared to the 54 hours we were supposed to be able to spend together. However, due to unavoidable airport issues for her and me having a cough/cold and getting stuck in a stand-still traffic jam for 4 1/2 hours on the way up to Gainesville (a trip that usually takes two hours took me almost seven that night!!), our time together quickly got shortened. Anyway, we were both glad that she was able to see Emma and Michael for at least a little bit.
First silly photos were from before I left for Gainesville on Friday, December 27th. This was my first time being away for two nights, but I helped Michael with trach care in the afternoon before I left so he only had to do it by himself on Saturday night. Still, not an easy medical task for one person. At the end of January I went on a cruise with my parents and brother to Nassau and Coco Cay, where we were gone for three nights. By the time I came back, Michael learned that using the Boppy during trach care helped a lot with keeping her neck back so he could clean around her stoma easily.

I worked New Years Eve, but had the next day off, so after work I took a short nap so I could stay up until midnight. I went next door to my friend Ashley's house and got to meet some of her teacher friends. We lit sparklers and her husband set off some of the smaller fireworks around 10pm, then we played a card game. I didn't stay too long because Michael went to bed at 11pm, so I needed to be back in case Emma's alarms went off. That way I would be up to take care of it and Michael could keep sleeping. When Emma takes a long nap later in the day, she sometimes doesn't fall asleep until after midnight, so I was hoping she would stay up then (she was still awake and being silly at 11:15!) and I could sprint her for ten minutes to carry her over to watch the big fireworks. However, Emma fell asleep at 11:45pm, so I watched the show from the window.

After midnight I looked up my schedule for the next few New Years Days to see when the next time I would be able to stay up until midnight without having to wake up for work at 5am the next morning. Turns out that won't be for four years!! Our schedule repeats every two weeks (until infinity, or until I can retire, whichever comes first) and since I work for 911, we always have to work the holidays if it lands on our day to work. So then I really wished I had stayed at Ashley's house until 12:15am. Hopefully they will have another party on December 31, 2023 and I can watch the ball drop in New York City! I waited too late to search for a live video of that on my phone.

Two days later, we got a visit from another friend, Dawson, who we met during film school in 2009. I don't even remember the last time we saw him! I can't imagine it would have been all the way back in Spring 2013 when we were all in California, but maybe it was. He currently lives in Texas, but told us a few weeks prior that he would be in town for a conference. We talked about all going out to dinner this night (January 2nd, 2020), but he really wanted to see our house too, so he came over.

In the original plan of getting to spend 54 hours with Mia during the week of Christmas, the second day of that plan included Mia being at our house and her parents driving down to Orlando to meet Emma (and also see our house) and then they would take her up to their house in Gainesville. But because of the flight issues, she ended up having to fly to Gainesville on Monday and did not fly into Orlando at all. So I was also bummed that her parents wouldn't get to meet Emma. I want everyone to meet Emma, and for her to make lots of new (healthy adult) friends too!! However, her parents had to drive down to Miami mid January because they were flying to Barcelona, Spain.. to live there for a year!! How awesome is that!? They were only able to stop by on the way down for about ten minutes, but it was a really nice visit that made me really happy.

One quick backtrack- on December 11th I had my calendar marked as the day Santa rides around on a fire truck and goes through all the neighborhoods. According to the sign at the front of our neighborhood he was supposed to be passing by between 7:30 and 8pm, but I remembered he was late the year before. I was baking brownies for my co-workers and kept checking the front windows every few minutes. Finally around 8:30, I saw (and heard) them at the entrance to our neighborhood and quickly disconnected Emma from the ventilator and feeding tube so I could take her outside. She watched quietly as the loud police cars, trucks with sirens and other festive people in the back, and Santa Claus all waved as they slowly drove by. Michael even woke up from his daily nap and came outside to stand with us. It was a really nice moment and I honestly started tearing up as I waved at the police officer. I truly feel lucky to be able to work with law enforcement (from a desk) and be helping our community.

Also, I didn't even realize that they had been throwing candy out for us until I saw it on the sidewalk and in our dewy grass the next day.

***********************
Lastly, here are just a few other photos that I had in this "Christmas Edits" folder of Emma in December, moving around the living room in various ways. I am always interested to see the different ways she is able to bend her legs since she doesn't have kneecaps (a condition called Genu Recurvatum as part of her Meier-Gorlin Syndrome).