A Season of Giving

I love Christmas. One of the things I love most about Christmas is the giving spirit. For the past couple years, our neighborhood has hosted a little get together for people to bring donations for Christmas. It's great because we can get all the neighbors together for some hot chocolate and donuts, and stand around fires as we come together for a good cause.

Last night, our neighborhood had our annual Christmas get-together. We had a great turn out! I'm so grateful to all the people who helped out with treats and donations. With everyone's help, we were able to gather a lot of needed items to donate to The Family Connection. Hopefully these items can really help some people out there who are in need.

Another thing I love about this time of year is the reminder that it is about how blessed we are. We are truly blessed, and Christmas time can really bring out the best in good people. I love hearing heartwarming stories of people helping other people. That's what it's all about.

I also love getting together with family and friends to celebrate the season. It's great going to parties with family and friends to celebrate the birth of our Savior. What a blessed time of year!

I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas!

Hannah's surgery

Well, Hannah had surgery yesterday. She had her tonsils and adenoids removed, and got a new set of tubes put in her ears. She was just supposed to have a tube taken out, but when the doctor got in there, her left ear was infected, and he asked if we would be okay with doing tubes again. Since they were already in there, I told him to go ahead.

Hannah had to have her tonsils and adenoids taken out because of breathing problems. She has always been a mouth breather. She has also been a really loud snorer, and occasionally has apnea episodes while she's sleeping. We decided that her adenoids were giving her troubles and got her checked out. The doctor said that taking the tonsils out would also help with the problems, so we did both. I'm really glad we did it because after the surgery, the doctor told us that her adenoids were totally blocking off her nasal passage. And, he said that her tonsils were huge, too. Interestingly enough, on the way home from her surgery, she started to fall asleep in the car, and she had her mouth closed and was breathing through her nose!

Poor Hannah. I feel so badly that we had to put her through that, but it was something that had to be done. Right now, my biggest fight with her is to take her pain meds, but I'm making her take them at least for these first few days to keep her comfortable. She drank really well yesterday, and I'm hoping she'll continue that. We're all stocked up on Jell-O, popsicles, pudding, yogurt and ice cream, so Hannah should be set for the next few days. Hannah is such a little trooper. She's been such a good and brave girl through this. I'm praying for a quick recovery for her so she doesn't have too much pain.