Holiday Weekend Highlights

Since we can't take Crosby into the hospital/rehab floor, I called on Thursday and asked if there was any way we could arrange for Sabita to see him for a Thanksgiving surprise. They said she's stable enough and the day was warm enough that if we bundled her up we could wheel her down to meet him outside! So since D had to work on T-day, my dad came to help out with Croz. When I went upstairs to get Sabita and told her what was going on, the nurse came around to check her blood pressure (which had been sky-high) before she went out. The nurse said, "Where do you think you're going?" and Sabita started talking a mile a minute. The nurse was like, "Slow down, I can't understand anything you're saying... you must get to see your grandson today."



Amazing to know how children have intuition when it comes to the sensitivity of certain situations; Crosby crawled up on his Granny B's lap, sat completely still, and laid his little arm over hers. He could tell there is definitely a good reason he hasn't seen her for some time. He can sense so much and it astounds me!

I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving! Ours was action-packed and wonderful. We were all sitting there barely able to finish a plateful of food... none of us are used to full meals anymore.

One of the highlights of Thanksgiving is getting to decorate my mom's homemade gingerbread houses. The tradition waned for a few years but now that Cam and fam are back in town, it has become a necessity!



Grant's rock candy specialty



Claire's melange of candy turned out really cute!



And Brig's is... shall we say... very avant garde ;)



For the Gingerbread House: Adult Edition Natalie and Pat kicked things off as they started frantically arranging their Golden Graham shingles



Steve and Danielle just fed each other candy all night; did they ever finish their U of U house?



D and I enlisted Beth's spatula skills to help us construct our oceanfront oasis



Here is our little island mud hut complete with a hammock, beach chairs, banana trees, and a bowl of tropical fruit



Pat & Natalie's finished product... she handcrafted the Christmas tree out of little jelly fruit strings and Pat put his architectural skills to use by custom-building the little fence and lanterns



No one had to remind me that Martha Stewart - I mean Audrey - would come up with nothing less than perfection. I kept calling it the "Jerry Garcia house." So darling with its picnic table and fire pit!



You can tell Jackie's decorating and interior design skills have been put to use lately



On Thanksgiving night, The Sloan girls and my mom and I decided to brave the midnight madness at the Park City outlets. Never ever will it happen again because no deal will ever be good enough for me to stand in line for an hour. I think I stood 20 minutes in the GAP line though.



I can always find something there. What was so exciting though was the anticipation of going as a group, the fact that my MOM actually agreed to go, and that I could shop while Croz was sleeping. Sounded too good to pass up!

Friday morning D and I took C so Sabita could see him again. What a happy grandma :)



It really is sweet how still he stays for her. He also knows that if he is good he will get a wheelchair ride...



We tested our boundaries and wheeled around the lobby for a bit; up and down the hallways. He had lots more fun than it appears:





Sabita's progress is top-notch. Really her recovery seems nothing less than miraculous! We are so grateful for this and happy to see her determined spirit and drive. Yesterday when I went to the hospital during her physical therapy I was in tears. I could not believe the improvement since last week. She is working really hard and wants so badly to get home. They took her feeding tube out 2 days ago and she is swallowing like a pro now.

I have tried to be nothing but positive around her but I definitely am either really high or really low these days. Knowing that I will be her #1 caregiver is a humbling thought but also a completely overwhelming one. We've been told an estimate of her discharge timeframe... about 1 or 2 weeks from today. Although we're ecstatic for her, that means scrambling chaos for us in a way! It's been strange to go from hearing the doctors say she had a very severe stroke and he couldn't promise anything to her coming this far in such a short amount of time. Should we move to her house and plan to live with her forever? Should we convince her to come to our place until we can get what we need to sorted out? Even those two questions alone have been enough to drive me up the wall, let alone the many tasks I (and D) will need to learn: how to check/monitor blood pressure as well as sugar, how to give insulin shots and when, how to cook for a diabetic, how to transport her in a wheelchair, help with baths, etc. I have every desire to take care of her but can I physically be able to tend to the needs of Sabita and Crosby day in and day out? I try not to get too worked up thinking about how we're going to pull all of this off but it's hard not to...

Well my cousin Elese is pregnant! She found out that she will be having a little boy at the end of March. She lives in Wisconsin now but came to visit for Thanksgiving and we threw her a really fun baby shower on Saturday. Her parents didn't want to let her get on the plane home.



When's the last time my aunt Rosy from Texas came to visit? It's been a while! This is kind of a rare photo op...



Crosby got an early Christmas present from Nan and Grandpa



A big month ahead of us!