Christmas catch up

Cody's birthday was Saturday November 30th. We started the morning with Tucker at wrestling practice. Heather spent the night with her boys, and watched all the kids so that I could go watch Tucker too. There isn't a lot of room in the small gym for spectators. He is really enjoying the sport and I'm learning the terminology and moves. Tucker likes to try and wrestle me, but I'm still stronger than him. For a few more years! After wrestling we drove up Lake Creek to cut down our Christmas tree. Cody found the perfect tree and hiked off to saw it down. Unfortunately we borrowed a crappy chainsaw and it took a long time to timber. We stopped some trucks passing by to help Cody drag it out. I'm pretty much useless when it comes to moving heavy objects. Our tree is hard to see in the picture, but it's the smaller dark pine tree above the top white strip of snow in the middle of the photo.

 Hauling it out.

 December flew by wrapping presents, dance performances for me and finishing up school for the kids. Because the holiday fell on a Wednesday the kids got 2 weeks off of school. Fun for them, not so much for parents. We went to cousin Parker's birthday party on the 23rd and had our annual Grant family party at the Reid school on the 22nd. Christmas Eve we spent with Kristin and Chris. We ate dinner together and the men watched a football game. Santa came that night and the kids were very excited Christmas morning!

 I will probably never be in the stairs shot, but I'm glad I capture the moment each year.  Cole received Skylanders for the Wii game.

 Aubrey received a Kohls brand version of an American Girl doll. She received the Target brand last year, but the leg broke off. She's promised to take extra special care of her. I got lucky and this doll looks like Aubrey.

 Hair color is pretty exact!

 Tucker got an mp3 player and Blake a Jake and the Neverland Pirates ship. Cody got a new office chair and I received an ottoman. Smiles all around. After breakfast and cleaning up a bit we drove to my Grandpa Fosters house. We had a nice lunch with my parents, Grandpa, aunt and uncle and cousin. We played our trading game and enjoyed each others company. It was an off year for my siblings to be with us Christmas day (I screwed that one up I believe). My brain doesn't help me remember, but we all had a great time. We were able to skype my brother on his mission.

 A couple days later I took the kids up to the cabin to spend time with their cousins. Cole and Blake were my little buddies on the snowmobiles.

 Cabin cousin times turns into movie time around the fire.

 Tucker and Parker received rockets for Christmas. My brother is a rocket scientist engineer at ATK and helped them prepare for launch.

 They were able to launch twice. This shot is fun because you can see it right at takeoff.

 The parachute would pop out and we'd carefully watch it fall back to earth.

 The cabin has been in my life since I was born and I'm glad I get to share that with my kids.

 Aubrey, Cole and Halle.

 All the kids piling on the tube. I think my Mom ended up in the middle at some point.

 I was gifted tickets to the Mannheim Steamroller concert from my in laws. Cody thought it would be nice if I took my Grandpa out on a date to the show. We enjoyed the show and spending time together. It's been 2 years now since my Grandma passed away.

I forgot that I also had an MRI in December. Everything still looks great in my head. My doctors cut my dosage of my anti seizure medicine to see if it will help with my weight gain. So far no weight loss, but not a lot of gaining either and I'm still seizure free. My MRI's are spread out to 4 months now instead of 2. Good news! I had them print out my scans so that I can show comparisons of what my brain looked like 2 years ago at diagnosis and what it looks like today. The white areas in the upper left quadrant are tumor.

 Now it is a dark hole where the tumor was removed. It is filled with brain fluid now.

I also participated in a Gastric Emptying Study. I've had some stomach/bile issues and my GI doctor requested the study. Everything came back normal. That's good, but didn't answer my questions. Oh well. I've decided to focus on the healthy me and not possible problems.