Santa Came To Town

Oh yes, Santa definitely found us!

Fletcher had the biggest grin - he kept saying "Santa!"  Yes, sweet boy.  Santa was here!

Our elf Odie, who magically found us in North Carolina, left a sweet farewell message for all the kids along with a self portrait so that no one would forget him.

After Torr's previous accident, I'm not sure a pocket knife was the best present, but he sure loved it!

 Fletcher was thrilled to find a new car in his stocking.

 And then he was done.  Sigh.  At least he is easy to please.

 Being the only girl does have some advantages.

 Fletcher finally opened a few more gifts.

 Oh look, more cars and trucks!  This kid was in heaven!

Dinosaurs too!

Sydney's one and only - and frequent - request from Santa was boots and pink polka dots.  Santa does not disappoint!

Look at that face!

Aunt Jami was given the thrilling job of detangling all the kid proof packaging.

Sydney got a master lesson in potato peeling from Uncle Erik's mom, Rose, who was a special guest with us this year.

The kid table - patiently waiting on their food!

We love spending time with family!  Wish we could do it more often.

Thank you Grampy for an excellent Christmas!

Christmas Prep

Aside from the accident, our Christmas in North Carolina began quite normal and wonderful. 

Grampy bought a lovely tree for the kids and happily waited on them to decorate it!

All the kids were involved but Fletcher took special interest in the project.

 Perhaps because the rest of them decided to attack Grampy!

While Torr was being tended to in the hospital, with his mom and dad close by, Pat and I took over responsibilities for the other three kids.  We loaded them all up for the very beautiful live nativity at Cartoogechaye Baptist.  By the way, this may be the ONLY picture of all three of these rascals smiling - of course, random car/iphone shot.  They had a great time!

Syd and Finn were such pals (you may recall they are only 3 days apart).  Watching movies together and bunking up so that Finn wouldn't be scared with his brother in the hospital that night.

With Ashley and Erik still in Asheville with Torr, final Christmas prep was left to Pat, myself and Jami.  Despite super cute faces like this, the thought of last minute Christmas shopping with all three was a little too much.

So Pat and I dumped the kids at Aunt Jami's and ran out to play Santa.  She was a trooper - prepping our entire Christmas meal with these three under foot.

Santa's workshop was moved to Grampy's basement.  With nearly no presents wrapped and down two adults - it was most definitely an operation of speed over quality!  

Torr made it home early Christmas Eve evening - just in time for our traditional true story of Christmas (made exceptionally kid friendly via the iPad nativity app!) and Happy Birthday Jesus.

 Ready and waiting for Santa!

Santa Squared

Because we were spending Christmas away from home, Santa made a quick visit to our house before we left.  But first, his "Elves" had some major work to do.

Fletcher's big gift from Santa this year was a train table.  I should have known by the size and heft of the box what a beast this was going to be - but Pat optimistically proclaimed it would only take 15 minutes.  HA!

More like 15 minutes to take all the pieces out of the box!!!

I decided this would be an excellent time for some Christmas music and egg nog.  Have I mention how much I love the Carpenters Christmas station on Pandora???  L-O-V-E, LOVE!

No, I did not just sit and watch.

3 hours later, it was done.  And we were so excited for the morning to come!  

Well, as you might imagine for any 2 year old boy, the moment he pulled back the cover and saw his beautiful train set - he was done.

 Sydney opened her gifts.

While he played.

And played.

She opened more.  And urged her brother to join her in fun activities.

But he could not be torn away from his beloved train.

Still playing.  His other gifts were finally opened by his very impatient sister and parents.  

Finally!  A train break.  It was brief.  Later that day, we moved the train table to their playroom upstairs.  He hasn't been seen since.

Unforgettable Christmas

This Christmas was certainly an unforgettable one for our family.  Full of classic memories of children playing, lots of laughter, way too much food and a few paper cuts - but more memorable this year because of one frightening accident that thankfully NOW we can all look back on with a little levity.

It seems traditional in our family that when we are together for a big event, someone gets sick and the entire house is pulled down by it.  There was the Christmas of 2008 when a minor stomach bug hit on Christmas Day - Ashley and I couldn't seem to shake it - for roughly 9 months until Sydney and my nephew, Finn, were born!  Then Fletcher's Baptism of 2011 when in a matter of 12-18 hours, nine people in our home were struck down with a violent stomach flu.  This year, my nephew Torr decided to take it to the next level.  And we certainly hope this is no tradition at all!

Two days before Christmas, our whole Fletcher family gathered in quaint downtown Franklin for our annual family photo.  Between shots, my 6 year old nephew, Torr, leaned back on a stair railing.  Whether he misjudged the height of the railing or slipped after gripping it, we'll never know.  Most of the adults in our group only saw him as he was mid-air - horizontal to the ground and flipping backwards down into a concrete stairwell - completely unable to stop what they all knew was going to be a very bad fall.

I didn't see any of it.  But I heard him hit.  A sickening soft thud I will never forget.  As his parents and others rushed to his side and gathered up the other kids, I reached for the cell, knowing in my gut 9-1-1 was required.

Thankfully we were very close to the local hospital and the responders were there within seconds.  He had landed on his head... not a scratch anywhere else.  His hands, for whatever reason, never even had a chance to slow his fall.  After the horrifying initial moments, he began to perk up - even joking with first responders that we should have been taking a picture of the spectacle of people and vehicles there to treat him.  Still quite shaken up this is the only one I dared.

He doesn't remember any of it.  

After nausea and an inconclusive CT in Franklin, he was sent by ambulance to Asheville for overnight monitoring and further scans.  Long story short, he was cushioned on that fall by angels.  That plus he has an insanely hard Norwegian skull that Ashley can firmly attest to from his birth!

No fracture.  Slight surface bleeding.  With time and rest, he would be fine.  Home just in time for Santa!  Praise God!  Here was his Christmas Eve journey.

 Thankful to have an Aunt in the biz!

Not so sure about the ambulance ride!

Mmmmmm.  Popsicles 24/7!

Santa doing the rounds!

Elf Odie sent well wishes too.

Needless to say, all the presents around our tree (and there were some) didn't hold a candle to the gift of Torr being ok and with us on Christmas morning!