Merry Christmas

It's Christmas today, so merriness and blessings to you all out there. We had our annual unwrapfest this morning, but more about that later.

This fall I have not blogged much at all. I didn't even attempt NaNoWriMo. It's been really tough around here. After Heidi's strokes in October, she has had a series of hospitalizations due to her continued poor health. She has been diagnosed with coronary and renal artery diseases. Her blood pressure had been going through the roof and her EKGs had been becoming more irregular. Finally almost 2 weeks ago they put a stint in one of her coronary arteries. This seems to have given her a boost in energy. At least she hasn't been getting winded just trying to go upstairs to bed.

This has made things in a stressful house even more so. With Heidi unable to work Christmas was looking pretty bleak. For the first time ever we could not even buy anything for the kids. Luckily there was a church in town that was looking for flood victims to adopt during Christmas. It turned out 2 separate groups had adopted us. The Regina kids and the Chick-Lits. These groups took what was sure to be the worst Christmas and turn it into one of the best ever, especially for the kids. I'm not an overly religious guy, but sometimes prayers are answered.

I don't care about getting stuff. As a man though you feel like a failure if you can't even get your kids a toy for Christmas. Those worries are all over though now. My kids got electric guitars, doll houses, video games and pretty much everything they wanted. My mom really made my daughter's day by giving her an American Girl doll (that has a hockey jersey, stick and puck) of her own to carry around. She's just beaming.

Grandma actually got to see us in our early morning bleariness via webcam this morning. It was pretty cool actually that she could sit there in Vermont, but also be in our living room here in Iowa.

This year has been a real trial, but today sure helped put a better spin to it. I hope you all have a happy, healthy Christmas and New Year.