"God Bless Us, Everyone!"

Christmas! It's my favorite time of the year, even when it involves trying to keep up with the craziness of the "Christmas rush" while fighting through the fever and fatigue that comes along with whatever I have.  I have a habit of making Christmas presents instead of doing the normal thing and buying presents, so I had a busy week leading up to Christmas... trying to get my brain (which feels like it's melting away) to focus on making a scrapbook and a binder full of stuff called "Mom's Guide to Being an Aerobic Animal." Yeah. My mom's birthday present (she's a Christmas Eve birthday girl) was getting her daughter (me) as a personal trainer, seeing as I'll be sticking around for another semester.  She really wants to be able to run a 5k (despite her back and hip problems), so we'll see what we can do! I have her starting with a lot of walking, core, and stretching, and then we'll go from there.

Anyhow, Christmas was wonderful.  My brother, sister-in-law, and I always sit at the top of the stairs while we wait for my dad to get the coffee ready (they had to wake me up this year! ah!).  Even though we're all in our twenties now, we still like to sit there impatiently as if we're little kids. Some things never change.  My family isn't into the whole clothes and money thing on Christmas, so we get a bunch of random stuff instead. I love it. I even got sugar plums this year! I never knew what they were before, but they don't have soy, dairy or gluten in them! We had a very yummy Christmas dinner (with a bunch of food that I could eat... sweet.) with my sister-in-law's parents. My temperature was up over 100 all day, so I was very dead, but it was still Christmas... even if I did fall asleep on the kitchen floor while my dad was being very nice and making me lunch. Now, my parents and I are sitting back and enjoying some peace and quiet before life goes back to "normal." Whatever that is.

My dad and I are heading out to the cardiologist tomorrow morning for my echo cardiogram. Yes, I am 20 years old and I can drive myself to doctors appointments, but when you're very sick and undiagnosed, it's always a good thing to have another person there who has witnessed everything that's been going on.  Other than that, I'm doing okay.  A new "symptom" has popped up... pain in all of my joints and muscles, especially in my hands and wrists. It's pretty annoying, but it'll help the doctors a lot because that was one of the main things they've been asking about.  I received my acceptance letter for swimming lessons! I figured I might as well learn how to swim while I have the chance, so I was very excited about that.  I also spent a couple more days in Rome with my coach's mom to help her with a Christmas party.  It's very cool to see what God can do when life is really weird and difficult, especially when we're celebrating the birth of our Savior!  I still have some very rough days, but I love Christmas, and my situation has made me especially aware of how many people don't get to have a Christmas like I did this year. Our family is very blessed to be able to be together and happy even though things have been pretty rough, and I wish everyone had that. 

 Yes, I may have been a "Tiny Tim" for Christmas this year, but I'd much rather be a Tiny Tim than a Scrooge!