We’re back in New Jersey. Christmas in Dallas was wonderful! I was thrilled to meet my newest nephew and spend time with all of my family.

The good people at the animal shelter finally called us back on December 28. As soon as I walked in with the dog, they said, “Your owners are looking for you!” Yes, the owners had called animal control, and so we have another happy ending.

David’s brother-in-law just finished chemotherapy, and as a show of support, David shaved his head just before we left.

He wore a hat much of the time.

Brother #3 is a senior in high school, but my parents still find toys that my brothers and I enjoy. This year, it was the Nerf machine gun. We had so much fun with it!

I was very concerned about not having my night guard in Dallas. I anticipated not being able to eat solid foods by New Year’s Day. However, I’m really fine. I had a few pains here and there and sore teeth, but nothing as bad as I imagined, praise God!

David is home sick today. We both had sore throats from allergies in Dallas, but just before we left, David picked up a cold from a friend.

It’s good to have Henry back, but David and I both can’t wait to go home again!

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David and I are home for Christmas! It’s so good to be back in Texas. This summer when we were here on vacation, we rescued a stray, and we’ve done it again this time.

We’re still waiting for animal control to be open so we can take her to the shelter. My parents have been nice enough to let her stay at their house in the mean time.

I left my night guard in our apartment in New Jersey. My jaw is starting to hurt, and I’m concerned that I won’t be able to eat solid foods by New Year’s.

David’s psoriatic arthritis has remained stable, even with flying, changing climates and wrestling with his nephews, praise God!

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He was created of a mother whom he created. He was carried by hands that he formed. He cried in the manger in wordless infancy, He the Word, without whom all human eloquence is mute.
Augustine of Hippo

Have a Merry Christmas!
Love,
A Young Wife

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I’m so excited to feature Pam Stokes Hunter as a guest blogger today! Pam is a very happily married 43 year old SAHM. Her kids are 15 & 17. You can read more about Pam and her struggles with fibromyalgia on her blog, The Journey Leads Home.

I’ve been doing some comparing this weekend. I have been comparing this Christmas season to last Christmas season. I believe I can honestly say last year was the worse Christmas I can remember having. To be completely honest with you I don’t really even remember much of it. I don’t even remember Christmas Day at all. That has nothing to do with my chronic illnesses. After having foot surgery on my right foot the first part of December I thought our holiday season was gonna be spent with me on bed rest with a cast and crutches and everyone waiting on me hand and foot. Little did I know that that was gonna be the least of my concerns although the cast and crutches part was true. After the first week I didn’t get a chance to spend much time in bed. If you are a regular reader of mine then you know that the last year has been the biggest battle in my family’s life.

Christmas is usually the season of peace, goodwill and spending time laughing and enjoying family. Last year that isn’t quite how our Christmas turned out. My dad’s holiday season was spent in and out of ambulances, hospital rooms and ICUs. And ours was spent on the road – sometimes with very little notice – between Nashville and Dayton, Ohio with my casted foot propped up on the dashboard. Yes I was supposed to on bedrest with my foot elevated. I spent most of that time with it elevated in a wheelchair being pushed around the hospital and sitting next to my dad’s bedside or in a waiting room.

I won’t repeat a lot of what most of you already know about my dad’s battle with the papillomas on his voice box and later his cancer there. If you aren’t familiar with it you can do a search on my blog for articles titled My Dad, My Hero. There are 5 parts that explain it all in detail. But just as a quick recap for those who are not familiar with it, we found out months after his breathing difficulty symptoms began that he had a growth behind his vocal chords that blocked his airflow. So, he wasn’t able to breath very well. His oxygen levels would drop. His respiratory rate would drop. There were a number of times that Mom was not able to wake him up – off to the hospital they would go. Mom would call us and we would take off up there. It is a 5 1/2 hour drive. I spent most of those miles on those trips praying and pleading with God to let him live long enough for me to get there. Yes, I had a foot in a cast, was on one leg and crutches but when your dad is in the situation mine was in none of that matter.

The one blessing during all of this time was that my Fibro was so far on the back burner in my mind that my physical health was of very little concern to me. I don’t recall a single flare up that lasted for any sizable period of time. I think I was working and running off of pure adrenaline. Our personal family – Ron, me and the kids – spent our time coordinating traveling and school schedules. We tried to make sure the kids didn’t miss very many days of school. But at the same time my dad’s health was on such shaky ground that we weren’t sure school was the most important thing at the time. Family in Ohio or school in Nashville – which was most important?

As you can see last Christmas wasn’t spent in much of a peaceful state of mind. I don’t recall shopping, decorating or even opening presents. I think God understood. We were all staying in pretty close contact with Him every day anyway. I think all of this is why this year my Christmas spirit is so much higher than it has been in years – not just last year – but in any year that I can recall. I have a tender spirit for the gift that God sent us in His Son 2000 years ago. This year I have been loving every part of the season – the music, the lights, the decorations and today’s snow fall. We are all so thankful for sparing my Dad’s life. It makes this year so much sweeter. We have so much to be grateful for. So many blessings to count. We realize that it’s not about us. It’s about God being in control of our lives and focusing on what He has done for us. While last year was the worst Christmas I can remember ever having in my life it is one that I won’t soon forget because of how God worked through it. He showed us that He is sovereign and that He hears us when we pray. He answers our prayers. He doesn’t always answer us the way that we want but I am reminded ever day that all of the prayers sent to Him this time last year were. I am thankful for His listening ear. It certainly makes this season a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS INDEED!!

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SITS is a wonderful group of women bloggers. They offer blogging tips and advice, and feature women bloggers to help them gain exposure. It was interesting to read my SITSmas card from last year.

What a year it’s been for us! Moving from a house to an apartment, from Texas to New Jersey.

All of our Christmas decorations are in storage, so I made everything on our tree. There are some great tutorials here, here and here. This was my first year having a real Christmas tree. I’m not sure that it’s any better than an artificial one. Sorry! I know a lot of people think there’s nothing like a real tree.

We’re experiencing a real winter, although we haven’t had snow, yet. Every morning this week when I’ve taken Henry for his walk, the pond at our apartment complex has been frozen.

This year was another difficult one for us, but there were so many blessings. We thank God for continuing to provide David with free Humira, employment, a church here in Jersey, and trips back home to our family and friends in Dallas.

My hopes for the new year are:

*Zero arthritis pain for David
*A new rheumatologist to help him achieve zero pain
*A very drama free year. 2010 was a rough year for our whole family.
*To finish my novel and get it published
*A job for David back in Texas
*Children. I don’t know when we’ll be healthy enough to have children, but David and I would be very happy if it happened for us this year.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Love,

A Young Wife

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Works for Me Wednesday is hosted by We Are THAT Family. Click here to read more great holiday tips.

My tip today is simple. It’s what not to wear to Christmas parties.

Pink. Don’t wear a pink shirt, even if pink is your signature color. I looked like a Valentine surrounded by all the Christmas red at my mother’s family Christmas party last year.

If you’re looking for a fun way to wrap a cash gift, click here to check out what I did for my nephew last year.

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Friday Fragments is hosted by Mrs. 4444 at Half Past Kissin’ Time.

*I have friends that object to the depiction of Jesus. They don’t want paintings, stain glass windows, etc with an image of Jesus because we don’t know what he looked like, and it can become a graven image. I respect that. I don’t own any painting of Jesus, and I doubt I would ever buy one, but they don’t offend me. So here’s my question for people who object to the depiction of Jesus: what about nativity scenes? What about movies where an actor portrays Christ? What about children’s coloring sheets? I’m not trying to start anything, I just genuinely want to know how far people take this belief. If you’d rather not leave a comment, you can email me using the Contact form.

*A friend of mine posted a link to this article on Israeli Airport Security on Facebook, and I just had to share. It sounds exactly like the deception experts on Lie to Me. I think it would be fantastic if the United State implemented these methods. It sounds a lot better than searching me because I booked different airlines for departing and returning flights through Expedia because it was the cheapest flight available. Seriously, that raises red flags with airport security. What do you think?

*David is home sick today with a sore throat. No fever, just a little sore throat. That means we have to delay his Humira shot. Humira suppresses the immune system, so when David is sick, it’s important that we delay his shot so his body can fight off germs. It’s amazing how strong his immune system is. Even with immuno-suppressing drugs, I still get sick more than he does.

*Also, I think I’m doomed to a life without socialization in Jersey. With David being sick, we can’t go to game night at church tonight. Sigh.

*David can still recite the periodic table of elements. He memorized it in high school. And he can still recite the whole, “Friends, Romans, countrymen: lend me your ears,” speech. Maybe memorization is his super power.

*I’m almost done Christmas shopping! Christmas can’t come fast enough for me this year because we’re going home to Texas. I keep having nightmares that I’m in Dallas, but all the presents are still in New Jersey, or I step off the plane with one change of clothes to get me through two weeks or the most recent, I realized I only had two days left in Texas and I hadn’t even seen Maegan, yet!

Have a great weekend, y’all!

Love,
A Young Wife

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Here’s my first ever podcast in honor of Invisible Illness Week!

Episode 1 – Christmas with Chronic Illness

Click above to listen.

Love,
A Young Wife

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We received so many lovely, thoughtful gifts for Christmas. Here are a few highlights.

My mother covered a cocoa container and filled it with dog treats for Henry.

David’s parents gave him this heating pad that conforms to your shoulders and neck. My favorite part is the timer. You can set the timer so that it will turn off after so many minutes, which allows you to fall asleep while using it without the danger of it overheating and burning you. Heating pads really can do that. I personally know someone who fell asleep with one and had terrible burns. The timer is a great feature!

My sister-in-law made me this adorable apron! It even matches my kitchen.

Brother #2 gave David this awesome coat. David hasn’t been hunting since I’ve known him, but David absolutely loves this coat. It maintains your body temperature. The cold really bothers David’s joints. When you pull the red cord, it makes the coat warmer, and the blue cord pulls open a vent to let air in. Pretty nifty! I had to ask him not to wear it to work. Maybe we could spray paint it black?

This was a gift from my mother. It is one of my grandparent’s wedding favors from the 1930′s. The paper has my grandparents’ names and wedding date written in lovely cursive inside. It was such a meaningful gift.

We had a very blessed Christmas. Hope you did, too!

Love,
A Young Wife

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Christmas 2009 was great! We felt so relaxed and unhurried. There were fewer gifts this year, and more family time. It felt like we could read the Christmas story in Luke and John 1 without making anyone late for another event.

Christmas Eve morning, David and I slept in. I made smoothies for breakfast, and we had just settled on the couch to drink them and watch a Christmas movie when my mother called. The weather man was reporting that Dallas would have whiteout conditions by noon, and we needed to head to the suburb where both my parents and in-laws live so we wouldn’t have to drive on the freeway once the storm hit. David and I threw our clothes (some of mine dirty) in a suitcase, as well as all of our stuff to bake cookies, and two dogs since we were dog sitting for our friends. Okay, so the rushing Christmas Eve to beat the storm wasn’t relaxing, but everything else was.

We made it safely to our parents’ side of town, although it did start icing/snowing as we drove. Yes, we had a white Christmas! No, I didn’t get any pictures. It was pretty cold outside, and the dogs didn’t really want to stay out any longer than they had to.

Once we made it to my parents’ house, David and I made our gingerbread cookies. We hung out there until it was time to go to David’s parents’ house. We had such a good time watching our nieces and nephews open their gifts. We gave our nieces a dress up box with feather boas, high heels, a purse, a feathered fan, etc. They LOVED it! Everyone liked the crepe paper money roll. We gave my three year old nephew Thomas the Train squirt toys and he was delighted.

It was a fun evening with great food and board games. David was hurting considerably because of the cold and all the rushing around earlier that day. His mother gave him a really neat heating pad that conforms to your neck and shoulders. We spent the night there, and got to watch our nephews open presents from Santa Christmas morning.

Christmas Day we spent with my parents. There were so many funny gifts. Well, maybe it wasn’t the gifts that were funny. Maybe it was just seeing Brother #2 in basketball shorts and his new cowboy boots. And playing Word Party with my family is always hilarious. You really get to see how differently we all think. I learned something interesting. When I say, “SNL” it sounds like “S&L” to my parents, and instead of thinking “Tina Fey” they think “Savings and Loan”.

That afternoon we had a traditional Tex-Mex Christmas dinner of queso, guacamole and taco soup. By then it had warmed up and the roads had cleared so we were able to go home. David gave me a bookshelf from Ikea for Christmas. He and a friend opened the box Saturday to put it together and discovered it was the wrong color. So, my brave husband went to Ikea and made a return the day after Christmas! They put the shelf together, and now I’m trying to find all the books I hid when we staged the house while it was on the market.

How was your Christmas? What are your plans for New Year’s? David and I typically have a New Year’s Day brunch, but with me working extra hours at my part-time job, David’s arthritis and his job search, we are skipping it this year.

Love,
A Young Wife

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