A Very Unusual Christmas...and some updates...

First of all I will start off by saying, Merry Christmas everyone.  I do hope you were blessed by time with family and able to savor the blessing of Christ's birth.

Monday night gramps had a pacemaker put in, and wednesday he had a procedure called an ablation done. The pacemaker is in theory supposed to keep his heart from going into v-tach or atleast shock it back if it goes into that pattern too long...the ablation was for the a-fib issues he has (my dad had this done too) so...in theory...things are going well. He is supposed to probably get out sometime this weekend or early next week...then has some rehab to do...but, he's ok. Man...I NEVER thought I would be sitting here saying gramps is going to be ok. I don't believe I have written since he went back in to the hospital...well...

Friday night (the 18th) my mom called and left a message on me cell phone, gramps had another heart attack at their house and they were on the way to the hospital via ambulance.  I called back when I got the message and talked to my dad...gramps had one heart attack and his heart went into prolonged v-tach/stopped I think 2-3 times.  They shocked him back atleast once.  Dad said, doesn't look good...priest had been in to give him last rites...they don't think he's going to make it...I bawled, dropped everything and headed to the hosptial...my entire family was there...my uncle was in cozad (2.5 hours away) and was en-route...it was bad enough we were praying gramps held on long enough for Jim to get there.  There were MANY tears and hugs...we all started the grieving process.  I stayed till 11 or so...mom stayed over night...when I left gramps was stable...he stayed stable.....and stayed stable....and stayed stable....long enough they decided to go for the pacemaker...and the ablation.  The man is AMAZING.  91 years old and SUCH a fighter.

He and I got to have a talk...a talk that I never imagined possible.  I got 2 hours alone with him and since we all figured he was on his last leg, his salvation was our foremost thought.  We talked...I asked him about his past (he loves telling his stories and I LOVE hearing them)...I asked him why he chose to be catholic...turns out, his mom was catholic and his dad wasn't, in order to get married his dad agreed to allow his mom to raise the kids catholic.  I asked if he believed it all, all the ins and outs of the catholic faith...he said, I question a lot of it.  I said gramps I know you know the story, I know you know the details...I just want to know, when it comes to the nitty gritty, the core of it all, that Christ came to this earth and died for your sins, have you accepted that?  He looked me right in the eye and said, I have accepted that and that is why I am not afraid to die.  I was shocked.  My gramps is NOT open, and does NOT talk about this stuff.  I think the fact I was willing to treat him like an adult and not pester like a child, helped.  I didn't push, he knows we care, I encouraged him to use the time God has blessed him with to examine and question...find where his heart really is.  We continued with great talks about life, how much he loves his kids...there was depth, emotion, we both teared up several times...SUCH a blessing.  God truly blessed me with that time with him, and gave me hope...hope that his heart is in the right place and he does know the Lord.  I am hoping for more deep conversations and encouragement as the days move forward.

Well, this year has been an odd one...very odd.  So odd that we have not yet actually celebrated any Christmas with family.  Our usual tradition is Christmas Eve with my folks and Christmas day with his folks.  With gramps in the hospital still and all the snow, my folks canceled our Christmas Eve plans...shortly after again due to the MASSIVE amounts of snow and wind, Armen's family canceled Christmas day plans.  While I am totally understanding and realize it would have been virtually impossible to go anywhere...I am bummed.  Don't get me wrong it had it's ups too...we got to spend a lot of time together...and since both A and I were in the process of recovering from the flu, there was much resting also.  Oh yeah, didn't mention that did I? 

Ari woke up 2-3 times with short bursts of crying sunday night...didn't think a thing of it as she went right back to sleep...only to walk in in the morning to one baby, all the bedding and stuffed animals covered in puke...and thus the adventure began.  She was fine, acted fine the rest of the day, so minus a LOT of cleaning, I didn't think anything of it...until tuesday when I started to feel sick...and about noon the flu hit me...thankfully armen was home for lunch and took the afternoon off to watch the girls so I could be sick...I was better the next day, but Armen came home from work that evening and he had the flu...somehow, someway Cordi has the immune system of an ox or something as she is the only one that escaped unscathed.

So...Christmas Eve we hung out and we let the girls open their gifts.  We got the girls a combined gift of a tent and tunnel, they LOVE the thing.  Ari got a baby doll stroller and baby doll sling and Cordi got a shape sorter. 

Granted all the toys are shared...so...it doesn't matter, but we had to put names on things so each had something to open.  Ari is a gift opening pro!  I found her behind the tree the other day skillfully unwrapping her uncle mike's gift...later when I again wasn't looking she snuck back and finished opening it, took it out of the box and played with the tissue paper.  So, when it came to her gift, she knew what to do.  Turns out the stroller was a big hit between the 2 of them and highly fought over...Cordi LOVES her shape sorter and sits so quietly for long periods of time skillfully placing the shapes in the RIGHT holes!  She also loves the baby doll sling and often brings it to me to put a teddy in and let her walk around...makes sense though, she was the baby that LOVED to be cuddled in the sling when she was tiny...only fitting she wants to do the same for her dollies.

All that being said, it was nice to be home, quiet and kinda stuck.  We really got to celebrate as a family, and got to savor the time with our girls...most years we are tying to find time in the midst of all the other celebrations to get "our" celebration in...no real traditions for our little family yet, but I am sure they are soon to come....

Just a few shots from our time Christmas day being snowed in...we did put the girls in their Christmas dresses even though no one but us was there to see.  They seemed to enjoy it, and LOVED their snazzy red Christmas shoes that were a size too big.