Powers Christmas 2014

It's now four days past Christmas and I am finally able to put this post together. This Christmas was a rough one but still a good one for the kids. We are preparing Eli for his surgery so sadly after Bridgette's birthday party we had to tell everyone we cannot have guest anymore and not go anywhere for Christmas. It was extremely hard to do but most people understood.

 One side of my family is dealing with a whole bunch of medical issues themselves so they understood completely and we are all going to have to delay our family Christmas indefinitely. If you could do me a favor and pray for my family especially two of my aunts that are going through a really tough time I would really appreciate it. All I can say is I HATE cancer.

The other side of my family were all able to get together at a hall and have a great Christmas there. I told my dad that I was really sad I couldn't make it and he understood. He knows that getting Eli's surgery is one of our top priorities and we cannot have him exposed to a lot of germs. From pictures on Facebook it looked like a really great time and hopefully we will be able to attend more in the future.

We had two (yes TWO!) Christmas trees this year. I was so excited that my mother in law brought us another one when we moved in. I am also grateful that we had room for both. One Christmas tree I decorated myself (with a little help from Emme) and the other one the kids helped. Here are the trees:

Bridgette had to stand in front of the one she helped with for a picture. For this Christmas we opened presents on Christmas Eve. Bridgette had to go up north for Christmas so we decided to open them when Brad got out of work at two. The kids had a pretty good Christmas. Brad and I decided not to get presents for each other this year since finances are really tight right now. We just bought a house and Brad switched jobs so we wanted the kids to have a good Christmas. We got some awesome presents from his parents though and his Aunt even sent us presents from Alaska! I thought that was cool. Here is our gift opening. Don't mind Emelia, she has been not wanting to wear clothes lately!

Bridgette and I decided to make Brads presents this year too. We made him an after workout cream for his muscles and an after workout bath soak. He has been really dedicated to working out and Bridgette came up with wanting to do that for him. Also Bridgette got a cool paint set from my cousins Michelle and Tracy so we decided to make him a painting.

He loves Mario so I did the outline and Bridgette painted it. I think we have a little artist in the making. Brad loved it!

On Christmas day we left a couple presents for Emelia and Eli to open and spent the day doing not a lot. Eli was a little bit under the weather. His nose was extremely stuffed up so I had to suction it a couple times. Then by the end of the day he had a fever (of 104 degrees) so I rushed him to the ER. He ended up having an upper respiratory infection poor guy. I hate giving medications to the kids. The doctors told me it was viral and gave me a prescription for an antibiotic. I said thanks but no thanks since it wouldn't do anything for him anyways. I did give him ibuprofen but I have him half doses and monitored his fevers. A fever is your bodies way of getting rid of the infection and while they can be serious if they rise too quickly or get too high I personally don't mind them having a fever. 

 I also used Young Living's peppermint essential oil to help keep the fever down to a decent temperature. This time last year I would have been running to get that antibiotic (even though I knew it wouldn't work) and giving him both Tylenol and ibuprofen constantly to try to make him feel better. I am glad that I don't have to do that anymore. He was feeling cruddy for a couple days. I let him sleep a lot! Then on Saturday my essential oils order came in and what do you know, it was all stuff for being sick and for energy. I started diffusing the sickness oils right away and applying them. By the end of the day he was feeling a lot better and his fever only spiked once during that night with that being the only time he even had a fever. I was so happy. He is feeling a lot better now. Here is a pic of the little guy that I took yesterday:

I am glad he is feeling better and I hope this wont change his surgery. They told me he absolutely could not get sick and it seems this is the worst year for it. Everybody and their brother is sick. Not to mention every time Bridgette comes back from being up north she is sick. She has been coughing all morning and has a runny nose. Hopefully she doesn't pass it a long to everyone like she did the last time she came back. 

Our Christmas trees are all taken down and now Christmas 2014 is just a past memory. Emelia has been telling people Merry Christmas still but I think that is cute. I am excited to be able to have many Christmases with our three kids and hopefully next year will be more merry instead of being sick! I hope everyone has a good New Year's and as always if you could please say a little prayer for Eli, especially now, I would appreciate it. 

Peace and Love,