Christmas is my favourite holiday, ever. I am essentially Buddy The Elf, all November, December, and for most of January! Christmas holds a special spot in my heart as it was my grandpa's favourite holiday, I feel him more during the holidays than I do all year long. It brings back fond memories of him here with us all, and of all the things my parents did with us as kids, that I now do with Addilyn and Paul. As we got married on November 21,2015, a lot of our Christmas traditions started then! We put our Christmas tree up in November just before the Toronto Santa Claus Parade ever year! So usually mid November! We have special ornaments that go on the tree every year, in memory of those who can't be here with us, our fist Christmas ornament, things my sister made me back when she was little! I literally keep every little thing. Every Christmas Eve we attend our church's Christmas service and are as always blown away by the amazing message they give!! And every Christmas morning we go over to my parents house for Christmas breakfast and gifts and then Christmas night we attend Christmas dinner with Paul's family. Last year in 2016 we started our annual Thompson Christmas Party where we have our friends over for a turkey dinner and game night!! We also have many, many, many family Christmas parties between both of our families, and we do Secret Santa for both our families! This year gift from Paul's side was a beautiful bench from my sister in law Burgandy. The bench is to honour my late Grandpa. We have one a bench in memory of him in Port Dalhousie where we all use to go regularly for coffee meetings. She had one made for me so no matter what the weather we could always have coffee together! We also made OllieBollen and Apple Flappen as a family on December 30, to ring the in the new year!! These are dutch desserts, and are made from my Oma's recipes from Holland! I love traditions, I love making memories and honestly just love the family time that the Holidays create for us!! I reached out to some other mamma's on Instagram and found out what their traditions were! One that really stood out to me was @lauabraxton15 as her little's are around Addilyn's age ! One being 1, and the other being 2! Her family traditions they've just started this year was opening Christmas jammies on December 1st so her boys could wear them all month long!! And on Christmas Eve opening one present. Then on Christmas morning they wake up and do gifts and Santa presents and then head to her moms for breakfast and more gifts ! On Christmas Day night they have one big meal with families from both sides!! I love seeing Laura's posts about her boys, and family, and she has an amazing Youtube Channel she just started that you should check out as well! I honestly am so sad Christmas is over, but am looking forward to 2018 and ringing in the new year with just our little family. Leave me some comments on how you celebrated Christmas! I love hearing how people enjoy their holidays! I've also included a very select few of our Christmas pictures, we took so many it was hard to choose!! Addilyn's reaction on Christmas morning when she found out all the toys were for her is by far my favourite! Merry Christmas & Happy New Year Everyone!!
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I feel like all of us parents at one point or another have been plagued by the fact that are children have been sick. So we whip out our homemade remedies and we call or text our moms and ask what did you do when we had a runny nose? Or some of us take to Facebook and ask the mom Drs of the world WHAT DO I DO!? But what do you do when you can't do anything at all?.. When no amount of essential oil or hugs or kisses, or Dr visits is going to fix what is happening inside of your baby. Your child, the one you're suppose to be able to keep safe and free from any harm or danger. On July 7th I took Addilyn in for her 9 month check up, her Dr requested. During this appointment I received results of an ultrasound done on Addilyn's head months before in March. The ultrasound was done because the doctor had noticed some abnormalities within her head and brain. I remember after having the ultrasound and staring at Addilyn, I just kept repeating there is nothing wrong with her she will be absolutely fine. But I guess the saying goes never judge a book by its cover, you never know what someone is fighting...... She let us know that Addilyn had a smaller than usual soft spot, as well as excessive swelling in her head. This was all the result of a cyst sitting on her brain. It measured under 6 cm, which kept me hopeful and had benign tendencies. But I can tell you everything that came after that was a blur and the Dr had to repeat herself a solid 5 times before I heard the rest of the diagnosis. She told me Addilyn may be delayed as she grows, we learned we could not do much for her besides watching her for any discomfort or sudden pain or excess swelling. I remember thinking why us, why her!? I fought SO long for her to be in my life, I fought tooth and nail to deliver her, and then God goes ahead and gives her a cyst. How in the world was that fair to either of us!? For the next few months after the diagnosis I struggled with my faith. Even now today, I'm still struggling. I trust God with all my heart, and all my soul. But I can't help but feel betrayed, and angry and bitter. SO bitter. What an ugly characteristic to be. I know he only gives his toughest soldiers his biggest battles but I wish he didn't put so much trust into a 1 year old. So what do you when you can't do anything at all? You pray, and when you think you're done praying. You pray some more. And then you embrace every second, and you enjoy every moment. My heart aches during the hard days, and those are becoming more and more frequent as she gets bigger. But I am thankful for every painful cry, and every time she pulls her hair, and every time she hits because she just wants it all to go away. Because she's still here, she's still breathing, she's still my baby and though we have hard days. The hard days make the good days 1000 times better. See I thought I could do it all on my own when it came to her health, that me alone, I was the answer to cure her. In reality I need to just let God do what he has planned. So far he hasn't steered us wrong. And though we may not always see eye to eye, I know if he brings us to it, he will bring us through it. So as this blog post ends, I pray you embrace all your hard moments and enjoy every good moment you have. I pray you never have to face what we're facing and I pray if you do, you know you're never alone. -Becky |
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