Throwback Post #2 (Christmas 2022)

Christmas wasn't quite what we expected in 2022.  Roman had just gotten off his wound vac and we were doing dressing changes twice a day.  They gave us permission to go to my hometown which was just a 4.5 hour drive away.  Since living back in Texas, we go every year for my absolute favorite childhood tradition of the big Cousin Christmas Eve Extravaganza.  We had a wonderful time with my extended family, but Brian and I were both getting increasingly concerned about how his wound looked by Christmas Eve.  

My beautiful girls

By looking at him, you'd never know what was under that cute button down.  He is such a tough guy!

Of course, Judah would be sitting at the dessert table ;)

The matriarchs :)

Uncle D, Cousin Mark, my daddy, and my Cousin L
A side note from present day: My second cousin, Mark, was just diagnosed a few days after Christmas in 2023 angiosarcoma.  He went into the hospital on Christmas Eve and missed our annual extravaganza.  Prayers are appreciated!

Two generations of women

The whole party!

 Unfortunately, by the day after Christmas when we called his surgeon, they said based on the pictures we sent that we did need to come in as soon as we got home.  We were packing the van already, so by that afternoon we were up at the hospital.  He had an infection and was admitted on the spot for another surgery the following day.  And so continued our saga...

A New Year's Resolution

I have decided with some prodding from my husband to give blogging another try.  Since it has been a year since I last posted there is no sense in trying to catch up like I could if I was only a couple of months behind.  I had a few posts started, so I will go ahead and finish those up and then move right into the present.  I am still not actually sure how I will fit this into my schedule since Roman is still managing to keep me busy despite not having to drive across town two or three times a week or be in the hospital.  We are in major catch up mode with feeding therapy that isn't close by.  Not to mention that he is running now, trying to climb, frequently a danger to himself, and living the terrible twos despite the fact that he's the physical and mental equivalent of a one year old.  Why, oh, why couldn't he have been delayed in the terrible two's also?!  His cuteness more than makes up for it though!

He loves his siblings so much!

Over Christmas he had strep throat.  Poor guy!  He's determined to get all the diseases.  He has Covid and RSV again this past fall.

Daddy had to miss the Christmas Eve festivities with all my cousins, aunts, and uncles to stay home with this sick boy.  He started antibiotics that morning and was already starting to turn a corner.

Christmas Eve and Day

As Christmas approached Roman's eating was declining.  I was resigned to getting an NG-tube before we left for Christmas, but even though he'd been taking in just the minimum many days he still gained weight and so the cardiologist cleared us to travel just a day before we were supposed to leave, but he also said he was going to get the ball rolling on scheduling his open-heart surgery, tentatively scheduling it for January 10th.

I was nervous about his eating while out of town because typically he eats worse when we are out of his element.  However, I shouldn't have been, because he did great considering the new environment.  I just fed him in the bedroom that we slept in whenever possible.

I was also nervous about him getting sick, particularly with COVID.  I asked all my extended family not to hold him this visit since we needed him to stay healthy until after his surgery.  Again though, I shouldn't have been worried because he was fine with a few extra precautions.

Our kids with all my cousins' kids.  Roman was sleeping during this photo, but it looks like he makes  number 15 at this celebration, but one of my cousins on this side of the family has two kids and wasn't able to make it to Christmas Eve this year.

The Man Table

After the Christmas Eve party, Brian took the oldest five kids to Midnight Mass.  I went to bed with Roman and Bob.  I should've kept Judah home too because he slept through the entire Mass and was up and ready to go with Bobby and I the next morning when everyone else got to sleep in. 

Christmas morning after Mass, my brother and his family came over.  We opened gifts and had a big breakfast together.

I finally managed to get them matching pajama bottoms. 

Drew got a haircut right before Christmas and he wasn't too pleased with how short the lady went.  

We started putting Roman on a special pillow for his head shape during his awake hours.  The therapists pointed out how flat his head was on the right side.  From the front his head looks great, but from the back it is quite lopsided.  They recommended the pillow and getting an evaluation for a helmet after his surgery.
 

Photoshoot Marathon

I wanted some newborn-ish photos of Roman done professionally, but not with a big price tag.  So I found a woman just starting her business at just the right price point.  I took Judah as my helper and he got way more than he bargained for since it was a 5 hour session.  She's dedicated, I'll give her that!  It was exhausting though.  I was literally sore from bending in strange positions to pat his bum to get him back to sleep.  She really wanted him asleep for the pictures and although he's an excellent night sleeper, he's a terribly short napper in even the best of conditions.  Try to pose him and dress him up, and he was very hard to get photos of him asleep.  But!  We got the cutest pictures ever and it was all worth it.  Poor Judah was starving by the time we left.  He normally eats very nearly all day, and he ran out of snacks very early on.

I made him a Christmas ornament of this one captioned, "The bear snores on." from a favorite book of mine. 

 

The Potato

This was the Christmas Card pick!

I really love this one too!

Christmastime

We went light looking in our city at a crazy crowded neighborhood that has awards and themes for their lights.  I was warned that it was crowded, but I thought, "Who cares if you're crawling along when there's cool lights to look at?"  Boy, was I wrong.  We had to bail after sitting still for an hour in the line of cars.  I just kept thinking, "How can people even live here when they surely can't get into their neighborhood after work?"  Anyway, it wasn't a total wash because we went off on the lesser popular side streets and still saw many award winners and lots of very cool lights.  

We also continued our tradition of making REAL hot chocolate and putting it in thermoses until we got to the lights.  Then I poured the drinks into disposable coffee cups with lids.  I also put marshmallows in them this year.  It was dark when I was pouring and apparently I was dropping marshmallows everywhere.  Several ended up stuck to the bottom of my pants by the end of the long evening of making memories.

Here's my one terrible shot of the evening.  Oh yeah, they also brought their candy canes from St.
Nicholas Day.

For Christmas, we went to my parent's house.  On Christmas Eve, we got all dressed up and headed out to Midnight Mass after playing cards all day.

This guy is almost as tall as me, keeping right up with Genevieve's giant growth spurt this year.

It was a very late night and so we slept in a little bit on Christmas Day.  We had pancakes that my dad made in the morning and then opened presents.

The day after Christmas my sister and her kids arrived.  Then we went over to my uncle's house to have dinner.  We also went Christmas light looking again after dinner before going back to my parent's house because there is a fancy neighborhood near my uncle that has really good lights and decorations.  We went in our big van and had Mimi and my sister and her two kids with us.  It was another late night and my little people were starting to get cranky by Sunday.

Sunday, we were blessed to have a very tiny outdoor gathering of just one of my cousins and his wife and son with my aunt and uncle.  The picture may look like it was a big gathering, but most of us in the picture were already staying under the same roof.   :)  It was the first time I got to meet my cousin's son, and he was so very precious!

The following morning, we drove home because we had a very special visitor coming.  Godfather Brian!  We had really grown accustomed to seeing him often and since moving back to the states it has become a rare occasion that we are blessed with a visit from him.  Anyway, we opened our presents to each other when we returned home.

The boys got these sumo wrestler suits for the trampoline.  Unfortunately, as I feared, they didn't last long.

 

Bazaars

We have been painting shells since we got back from the beach with such a nice haul of big, beautiful shells.  The children have worked so hard to paint a whole bunch of them to sell at the Homeschool Children's Bazaar.  Genevieve also has been making cards with her watercolors and hand-lettering skills.  Genna's cards were blowing down a lot and we were limited in space with our card table.

Wheeling and Dealing at the Bazaar

The problem we ran into with this year's bazaar was that we didn't have much foot traffic.  Nearly all of our shoppers were also selling stuff at their own tables.  This was mainly due to the pandemic and people not wanting to come out just to shop.  (We did have it outside for this reason.) There was a bunch of kids excited to make money off their goods and not wanting to spend all that money on other kids' tables.  However, they did buy some things.  Drew priced his shells super cheap and painted more shells than anyone else, so he did do the best monetarily.  Bobby sold his two painted shells, solely utilizing his charm and dimples.  Genevieve had him advertising for her and paying him a percentage of each sell.  It was a good lesson in business!

Don't know why these pictures came up upside down and sideways, but these are Drew's shells that he didn't sell.

Judah's shells

Hannah's shells

Isaac's Shells

Genna's shells- I have no idea why I don't have more pictures of her shells.  She had many, but this is all I can find.

I started an Etsy shop back in November.  My shop is called CaeliEtTerraCrafts and you can see what is available currently here.  An opportunity came available for me at our church to rent a table at the Christmas Bazaar.  I was hesitant at first because the initial investment was high enough to make me wonder if it would be worth it in the end.  I ended up splitting a table with another homeschool family to save some money and test out the waters.  Here are some of the items that I brought to sell.

Our Lady of Guadalupe- I drew the angel at her feet and decoupaged it onto the wooden peg.

Blessed Carlo Acutis- He has a hand-painted monstrance.

St. Faustina- She is painted with my drawing of the image of Divine Mercy shrunk down and decoupaged onto the doll.

Our Lady of Lourdes has painted roses on her feet and is holding a rosary.  

All, but a couple of my peg dolls, sold at the bazaar and most of them have since sold on my Etsy shop.  I brought the kids' shells that didn't sell at the children's Bazaar and I brought my own as well.  Here's two of mine.

In the end, I had very little inventory left to take home which is exactly what I wanted.  The ornaments sold out early.  The mugs were almost gone.  I sold both of my remaining 5 nativity scenes at the bazaar;  the other three had previously sold on my Etsy shop.

My table at the bazaar with my friends

My half of the table

We learned our lesson at the Children's Bazaar and put Genna's cards into a binder with their envelopes.  She sold a bunch and was very pleased!

 

My hand embroidered, memory foam-stuffed "Our Little Lady Doll"-  This one is Our Lady of Lourdes and you can see the detail of the three dementional roses on her feet in the following picture.

My second "Our Little Lady Doll"- Our Lady of Fatima has gold trim in her crown and on her veil.

I am currently working on Our Lady of Guadalupe "Our Little Lady Doll" to add to my shop.