Hospital Christmas

After Aaron's first surgery, we didn't see why he wouldn't be able to be home for Christmas and so we didn't worry about it too much.  

We had been planning on spending Christmas up in Utah at my parents new home so we did start to talk about other plans after surgery.  We assumed that even if Aaron was feeling better, he wouldn't want to travel for the holiday.  Definitely not sit in the car for 6 hours.

Then we found out that Aaron would need another surgery and everything was put on hold.  We didn't know when the surgery would be and we didn't know how long he would need to recover after the second surgery.

We tried to think positive and act like Christmas was coming.  I pulled out some of our Christmas things.  Christmas quilts on the couch and stockings.  Then I would take pictures and show them to Aaron so that he knew what was going on at home.

About a week into December, my parents solidified their plans for Christmas.  They would come down to us after seeing family in Utah. And my brothers would drive here from Texas.

So about 4 days after Aaron's surgery, my family was here to celebrate with us.

On Christmas Eve, Aaron was able to go on a liquid diet!  Happy day!!  It wasn't amazing but it was something.

We gathered the family in the hospital room.  It was kind of a tight squeeze so it was a good thing that I had made this Christmas tree back in November before Aaron was even in the hospital because it was the perfect tree for our Christmas.  Zach had fun decorating it.

Every time one ornament would fall off, Zach would pull them all down and start all over.  It was very cute to watch.

We told the Christmas story using a felt board story....and used the tree as a felt board.  Very useful.  This way Zach was at least a very little bit engaged and interested.  I believe that I had one of my brothers read the story while Zach and I looked at the felt board.

We had a little down time while we were there and so we were sitting around talking and general merry making.  Zach was having fun climbing under chairs and behind furniture.

Suddenly the door to Aaron's room flew open and a good amount of hospital staff came pouring in.

"IS EVERYONE OKAY?"

"Oh, yeah...were we being too loud?"

"No.  Someone pressed the Code Blue button."

For anyone not in the know...the Code Blue button is the "Someone is trying to get dead in this room and I would like them to stop" button.

We look around and Zach is behind Aaron's bed...hanging out with the buttons.  Zero people were dying in that room.  But the hospital staff are really on their toes so good for them.

We passed out Christmas Ever presents (surprise, they are pajamas).

I went home with my parents and brothers and got Zach ready for bed.  We told him that Santa would bring all the presents to the hospital with dad because Santa knows where we will be.  He's still too young to know what's going on but it is cool that Santa always knows where to put the presents.

Then I went back to the hospital to set up everything and be with Aaron.  He didn't want to be alone on Christmas Eve.  I know that feeling.  I've been alone on Christmas Ever/Christmas before and it sucks.

I got the tree set up and went to bed.

In the morning the stockings were full and more presents arrived.  Along with the best present...my sunbear.

He immediately dove into the presents to have a look at all of them.

There he found a special present just for him that was left unwrapped.  It was something that had been mine when I was little and since Zach loves music so much, I thought that it would be the perfect present for him.

He wanted a "sing" playing the rest of the day on his "new" record player (all but one of the records are "lost" behind my bed so we currently listen to Jack and Jill TOO MUCH).

Zach even had to show his new records to dad.

About halfway through present unwrapping, Aaron had to have wound change and so we went downstairs to the lobby to enjoy the Christmas tree and each other's company.  It was bizarre how empty the hospital was.  I mean, it's good that it was empty...but it felt so quiet.

Another family was in the lobby waiting for a family member too.

When I got a message from Aaron that they were done with wound change, we headed back upstairs and finished unwrapping presents.  Then Aaron (and I) needed to take a nap.  We snapped a couple pictures of the three of us.  Zach didn't want to cooperate and I couldn't hold him up that long so they all came out a little weird.  But this was our family on Christmas day.