Happy Holidays/ Here's to a New Year!

In lieu of sending out Holiday cards, I am putting a post on Zoe's blog.  How is this different from any other year?  The difference is that I deluded myself in to thinking I actually would send out holiday cards this year.  I even thought we would get a nice family photo done.  And while we are at it- why not pretend I would finally hang all the previous family photos and individual child photos on the wall?  All those school pictures waiting to be hung would be hanging in my perfectly clean house.

I know you are all shocked that this has not happened.  Even more shocking- it won't be happening any time soon.

As the year came to a close and a new year began, as usual I found myself taking stock of my life.  The highs and the lows of the previous year have been acknowledged, celebrated and in some cases grieved.

The biggest accomplishment that comes to mind about 2015 is that this was the first year in the past five years that no one in our family was in the ICU.  I was not told, "The next 24 hours are critical."  And I was not led to that horrible "quiet room" while a doctor with a sad face told me things no one should ever have to hear.

So I feel pretty good about how the year ended.  Because we are all here, together.  And we are all (mostly) healthy.

And maybe some day we will get another family photo done.  It will replace the last one we had which was taken one day before Gavin had meningitis.  In the photo, Gavin looks happy and healthy. Less than 24 hours later I was in that damn quiet room...

And some day my house will be more organised and life will always be perfect, blah, blah, blah.

For now, I celebrate where we are.  I am so grateful for how wonderful Zoe has been feeling.  In 2015, Zoe spent the first 9 months on morphine in and out of hospital.  Since September, Zoe has been doing so well.

Here we are- the start of another year and as always the hope that life will continue to be as good as this.

 Zoe's Holiday Concert

 Christmas morning

 Ailsa was as excited about Daddy's air hockey game as Gavin was.  And for the Scrubs fans out there- Oh yes, he is wearing a onesie!

 Christmas break this year was full of all the things Christmas break should be full of.  We chopped down our own Christmas tree at a tree farm.  We decorated a ginger bread house.  We went on outings like the zoo.  This photo is Zoe smiling up at the fish at the zoo.  Zoe's vision has matured/ improved in the past few months.  When we went to the zoo, Zoe was actually watching the animals for long periods of time and laughing at the silly things they did.  Zoe has always loved watching fish but is better able to track them with her eyes now.  

This is from a Marlies hockey game that Alison gave us tickets for.  Her brother had gotten the tickets for her nephews but they could not go to the game and he thought to give them to us since he knows the girls love hockey.  We were so touched by this gift.  All of the pictures of Zoe are super blurry from her moving so quickly with all her excitement.  Both girls have always loved going to hockey games.  I don't know if it is the lights, the music, or the food...  Both girls thought it was soooo funny when mommy kept chanting, "Let's go Flyers!"