Jackson kind of started his season that week too with a spaghetti dinner and scrimmage that was after the middle school games that Tuesday night. They introduced each grade of players for the high school teams and they had a very short performance they did. Jackson's grade did the Cha Cha Slide :-). He did have his actual first game that next week and they did a great job. Caroline and Jared got into town in time to catch Jackson's game and it was fun to watch Emmie and Sully take it all in.
Thanksgiving was a bit of a welcome break from everything. We did Thanksgiving with Andrew's family the weekend before and then the rest of my family started getting into town the day before Thanksgiving, which was actually Ellie's big 13th birthday. She always gets the biggest parties. We ordered Mi Casa family style and I made three Oreo lasagnas because Ellie wanted to make sure she had some leftover. The house was full and fun was had.
We changed things up this year and actually had the Bobziens stay at our house. Of course, Amanda came bearing gifts-a mini charcuterie board for Andrew and misty mints and a phone charger for me. I joked that she would do a better job hosting me at my own house than I would hosting her. I do think they enjoyed a bit of the quiet that you experience when you come back from my parents. The weekend was full of activity. We went to Baring for lunch with my mom's family on Thanksgiving and had dinner at my parents. We split up into four groups and got in some bell ringing at Westlakes on Friday followed by going to see Frozen 2 in sold-out theater. Getting snacks was a joke, but it all worked out in the end. The kids also got to paint sugar cookies, do a ginger bread house competition and pack the hot tub before people started heading home on Saturday. We did travel out to Fouch's Christmas Tree Farm before they left to get a quick picture of my dad and his grandsons all in their flannel shirts. Despite the dreary day, they turned out cute. Saturday night we went out to eat at La Pa for an early birthday celebration for my dad.
Caroline and her kids stuck around for most of the next week too. I got to babysit them on morning while Caroline went to a dentist appointment. It was fun having little ones around again and they were such good kids for me.
The twins got to go to a fun Nerf battle at the Baptist church. They had to cap it at around 150 kids and had twice that many wanting to join in. Lincoln was supposed to go too, but ended up having practice. Baylor was in town for his great-grandma's funeral, so he took Lincoln's place and they had a blast. Then Baylor and Briley got to spend the night with us.
The end of the Thanksgiving celebration immediately meant it was time to start celebrating Christmas. We got the house all decorated inside and out before Thanksgiving. I still love the lights from the Christmas tree and garland and kept them on all day. I had the three youngest help me prep our Christmas cards and got them knocked out quickly. Then we had to prep the teacher gifts, make salsa for the neighbor gifts and wrap gifts. I have the kids wrap their gifts for their siblings and cousins...or at least try. With our busy schedule, we were able to squeeze in our "Polar Express". We did it on a Saturday and it wasn't our normal. I got it all prepped and at the time we only had the twins and Jackson at home. I sent them downstairs to clean up the basement and that is where the tickets were. Then we had to go pick up Ellie at my parents (she was helping my mom wrap) and give her her ticket and then off to the Y to pick up Lincoln from practice and he got his ticket. Our first stop after that was to drop off some clothes and toys at the thrift store we had collected as part of our Advent Tree. Next up was dinner at Mi Casa followed up by driving to Atlanta to look at some lights we had heard about (a bit of a bummer, but oh well). The kids also had bags of goodies, hot chocolate and Christmas light bulb headbands.
And with the anticipation of Christmas, comes the twins' birthday. Their birthday was on a Friday this year, which worked out well. Our only issue was when to have their party with family. We ended up doing it the day before after Ellie's basketball game. We just ordered some pizza and had Andrew's parents over. The twins were excited to be able to open their gifts early. Then on their actual birthday, the got donuts for breakfast and I brought ice cream to their class that afternoon. In between I got things set up for their ninja party at the K-Life house that we had after school. Thankfully, Andrew was there to help me because my parents were out of town and Jackson and Ellie both had practice after school. The kids ate snacks and played around for a bit before we started games. We had an obstacle course, a game where they had a balloon tied to their ankle and had to try to stomp each other's balloon, a game of Sensei says led by Lincoln (it took a while :-)) and an unsuccessful pinata session with it breaking after the third kid out of 12. There were tears, but then we quickly moved onto opening presents. I had divided up the kids, but chaos ensued and I just walked away and let them figure it out. Then it was time for cupcakes and for everyone to head home. They had a fun time, but I'm always glad when those are over. We cleaned up and loaded everything up then Andrew took the boys home while I met Ellie and Jackson over at the jv/varsity games that were going on at the Primary. I did feel a little bad when Miles called to ask when I would be home because I had all their new toys in the back of my car.
I was glad we were able to squeeze some Christmas and celebration in between everything else. Like I said before, basketball kind of ruled the schedule. Lincoln and the twins started their season with the Brashear Shootout the second weekend of December and Lincoln played some games at the Schuyler league the Saturdays before and after Christmas. The twins played on Saturday and they were fun to watch. I was impressed with how they played. They lost their first game, but played hard. Their second game went into overtime and they pulled it out and won that one. I'm excited to watch them play again. Lincoln's team played the next day. They did a great job and won both of those games. They actually ended up playing the same team twice because the weather wasn't great and not everyone could get there. Those last two weeks before Christmas break, we had 13 games and only 3 days without a game. I love watching them all play though. And they only lost 2 games out of all of them. Ellie finished her season before Christmas with a record of 13-1. She had a lot of fun and is looking forward to next year. She actually ended up being asked to play with a travel team. It is a team that has played together for years, but they decided to add a few more players in hopes that it will be a building block for the high school team. So she is just starting up practices for that. She has the same coach as Lincoln, so most of their tournaments will be together...hopefully. Jackson had a few more games before the break too and is getting better each time. The majority of their season is after the Christmas break.
In the middle of all of this, Kaitlin and Zane got some exciting and devastating news. We knew when she was home over Thanksgiving that she was concerned about a lump she had found in her breast along with some swollen lymph nodes in the arm pit on the same side. She had an appointment to see the doctor on the Monday after Thanksgiving, but then discovered that Saturday after Thanksgiving that she was pregnant. She had an ultrasound and biopsy of the breast on Monday and the initial thought was that it was fibrocystic tissue and she should. But then soon after Caroline had taken her kids back to my parents house after I got to babysit them, I got a call from my dad (they were actually in Columbia for a followup appointment for my mom and her knee surgery and were planning to go out to eat to celebrate his birthday) letting me know that the biopsy showed that Kaitlin actually did have breast cancer. I felt horrible for all of them. I ended up going over to my parents to be with Caroline and then when my parents got home, we all went up to Pella. Andrew was great and took care of getting the kids and ended up going to Ellie's game in Hannibal that I was supposed to go to. There wasn't a whole lot we could do, but just wanted to be there for Kaitlin and Zane. We visited with them for a while and got some dinner before coming home. Next they ended up doing a biopsy of the lymph nodes and she got that result the next week saying it was positive. I had already decided I was going to go up and visit her, make them lunch and just try to help out around the house and the one day I had free ended up being the day after she found out the lymph nodes were positive too. So my mom ended up joining me. We even got to go to Lola's Christmas performance at school. Then a little before Christmas she had an unilateral mastectomy and lymph node removal she found out it was stage 3, which was another blow. Kaitlin, Zane and my parents went to MD Anderson in Houston right before New Year's Eve and had a good appointment and some additional testing done. Her oncologist there came up with a treatment plan and I think they left feeling a little more confident. The outpouring of support for Kaitlin and Zane and the family has been amazing. Molly designed a shirt to use to raise money and at least 550 have been sold. They have so many people praying for them and her ultrasound of the baby looked very good. She'll start chemo soon, so she definitely has a rough road ahead, but she has so many people there for her.
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