It wasn't a great one. As I've stated before, Rhys was super sick and that sort of took the "Merry" out of the whole holiday. But, I was determined to do "proper" Christmas for Rylen's sake, especially since this is the first year where he sort of "got it". As in, he knew that there was this guy Santa that would bring him a present.
I know, I know....this isn't the true meaning of Christmas. But, when you are 2, it's really hard to focus on much else. Presents trump everything else. One day I will make sure he knows what the holiday is really about, but for now it's all about Santa.
We actually did the whole Christmas thing a day early because my dad and brother worked Christmas Day. That's the benefit of your kid not being able to read a calendar...you can make holidays whenever you want them to be! On the 23rd, I promised Rylen that we would make cookies to leave out for Santa. Unfortunately, that's the day Rhys got very sick. His nurse literally had to kick me out of the hospital and make me go home to Rylen, reminding me that I promised him we'd bake cookies. That was the first (but not last, I'm sure) time I have felt completely torn between my children. But, Rylen was at home super excited waiting to bake (one of his favourite activities), so off I went.
So, we baked.....
And made a mess....
And wrote Santa a letter. And laid out cookies and milk. I have no idea why Santa needed two mugs of milk, but according to Rylen it was of utmost importance.
Later that night, Mark and I were at the hospital with Rhys and Garrett. Earlier in the day Mark had purchased little stockings for the boys and we hung them by their beds. I also read them both "Twas The Night Before Christmas" before leaving. It was very important to me that I make their first Christmas a little bit "normal".
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| Garrett`s bedside |
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| Rhys, so sick. His Christmas onesie is there waiting for him, but he had too many tubes to actually wear it. |
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| Rhys` stocking and ornament |
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| Reading to Garrett |
Christmas Day, we all came to visit. And got another Giroux family photo! This one wasn`t as great. Garrett could not be close to Rhys due to his illness, and you can clearly see in the picture that Rhys is white as as ghost...not well at all. But still, we got it done, and the important thing is we were all together for a few minutes at Christmas time. That was the best present ever. :-)
Oh Chelsea- what a Christmas! Looks like you did a great job of making it as "normal" as possible. And even though I'm sure it takes a lot of your energy to sit down and blog about things that might not seem that important right now, you'll be glad you did- because you will forget all those little details.
ReplyDeleteAnd one day you can have your blog bound up in a book and read back on all those little details! Neil used Feed Fabrik to make my book- it only took him an afternoon because there aren't a tonne of options you have to deal with. I think it turned out great and I loved reading it! Keep on bloggin' Chelsea! You're doing great!