We Had Ourselves a Merry Little Christmas

This Christmas was the most exciting yet. Adam was old enough to really “get it” for the first time. It was fun for us because it was fun for him.

Although I had hoped to go through the boys’ toys a couple weeks ago, it worked out well to wait until Christmas Eve. Adam gathered up some neglected, yet like-new toys to give to Santa, and I added a few from Levi’s room. Here’s the letter I transcribed for Adam while he told me what he wanted to say.

"Dear Santa,

Do you know what this box of toys is for? Taking to other children. I don't play with them anymore.

What does Mrs. Santa Claus do? I want to know if she comes to our house or not.

Santa Claus, I want to know when you come to our house. I like Caroline so much, and Mommy and Daddy. And I like our house.

I'd like a star to go on the top of the Christmas tree because that's better.

Be careful.

Love, Adam"

(The toys will be going to Levi’s occupational therapist, who will be passing the toys along to some families in need that she works with.)

A special friend made the boys this adorable plate for Santa’s cookies. It even has the boys’ names on it (which are covered up with chocolate chip cookies in the photo). Adam decided that Santa needed chocolate milk so we made a special trip to the store on Christmas Eve.


I loved watching his sleepy eyes take in the magic on Christmas morning.

Levi was mostly interested in the tissue paper from his gift bags, so I was glad we didn’t get a lot for him this year. We hardly gave Adam anything in years past, and he has survived quite well ;)

While watching Adam, I was reminded of some of my favorite holiday traditions as a child. My dad worked on Christmas Day every year I can remember. Unfailingly, we would run out of something, and one of our parents would have to run to the grocery store on Christmas Eve. My brother & I always tagged along, anticipating the magic that was about to take place. While we were gone to the store on Christmas Eve each year, Santa never failed to visit our house! When we got home, our gifts from Santa sat unwrapped, in front of the tree.

Just before I left for Texas, we got one of the best presents ever! Levi’s Medicaid approval letter!!!!!!! I now have to write out a weekly schedule for Levi in 15-minute increments for his waiver to go through, but after this last step (which our case manager has never had to do before), the budgets are usually finalized within a week. This has been a LOT of work, but it will all pay off. We already got a refund from the pharmacy since the Medicaid card backdates to when we were approved for the waiver. I am really wishing we had this last year to help with all of Levi’s expensive hospitalizations and trips to the ER, but the bright side is that he is breathing much easier this year. I guess it is a good thing to have Medicaid yet not need it as much as we did before we got it!

I am anxious to get the tree put away, get the new toys in their places, and get back to a daily routine. Yesterday, I finally got iCloud set up on my Apple devices. It is amazing that now my address book and calendar information (that I only had on my Mac) are now also on my MacBook Pro (laptop) AND the iPod Touch!

Hope your Christmas was merry and bright. I am working on my Tuesday Tidbit but it may not post until late tomorrow night (or early Wed. morning). Hope you’ll stop back by soon!