Christmas was great this year... as it always is.  One of my favorite seasons for so many reasons and this year was no exception.  It was made especially sweet with it being Macy's first Christmas at home with us.  She had so much fun with all of the hoopla and was one of the loudest singers when we sang Happy Birthday to Jesus!

This year we went to Florida to spend time with Grandma.  Almost everything we did was "free" thanks to Disney reward dollars and getting to go to our home away from home at Give Kids the World Village.  Otherwise it was money for gas and food.  And we all had so much fun!  Don't get me wrong, there were a couple rough spots... like day one which is ALWAYS hard for Braeden as his anxiety over change gets regulated... and day two was better but still off.  But really the rest of our trip went along swimmingly with very few "typical" struggles.


There were two HUGE struggles that we did maneuver through in the midst however, but luckily they were overshadowed.  On the way to Florida, we had stopped in Atlanta an extra day with the idea of using our Six Flags season passes.  During the first night Macy began running high fevers and when she was still spiking them, on meds, the next day and I was about to take her to an urgent care location, Olivia began having trouble with her chest where she couldn't even get out of bed.  I had no choice but to call the ambulance.  At the same time because of all of this, Braeden's anxiety took over and Liam began having a panic attack.  He stalled in walking across the room and just shook, saying "What is happening to me?  I don't know what is happening?!!!"  It was a LOW to say the least and I struggled big time through it all just trying to hold everyone together.  (Texting a couple of special friends has been the glue to hold me together especially in these rough times of late!!!)


The ambulance deposited the girls in the ER waiting room where we waited quite a while to be seen.  Olivia began feeling better and Macy was finally diagnosed with a double ear infection and given a prescription for antibiotics.  They ran an EKG and XRay on Olivia but her heart and chest looked good.  They said they attributed her pain to growing.  I was emailing with her doctor in Chicago and they don't agree.  We will look into it more at her next appointment in January.  (The second struggle I am processing and will hopefully complete a second post about it.)

But as I said... the struggles were definitely overshadowed by the great trip we had!