Santa is on his way

Andrew did his traditional calling Norad tonight (Christmas Eve) to find out where Santa is....

We also sent an e-mail and we got this back as a response:

You can follow Santa's progress here. The white line indicates where he is delivering presents now!But he won't visit your house until you are in bed and asleep!http://www.noradsanta.org/en/home.html

Grace Manor- thank you

I got a thank you today from Grace Manor for our service.
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Thank You so much Amy we are greatly indebted to you here at Grace Manor for brightening the lives of so many seniors who do not have loved ones to charish Christmas with. We truly do appreciate all you do.

Thank A Million,
From the bottom of our hearts
Daniel and staff

Adopt a Grandparent (service project)

We did our 2nd annual Adopt a Grandparent program that I set up with the rest home. This year we had 16 more boxes than we did last year.
Here is more info about the program from last year. And here is one more post about it from last year.

After our Christmas party we loaded up our girls and met the rest of the SU at the rest home.

This year I decided instead of having us go door to door that we would come at the end of lunch and sing in the dining room. That would cut down on the chaos in the halls (which you can see in these pictures from last year).

The residents were so nice. As you can see in this picture below one of them wore the Christmas craft the girls made them on their head.


The girls sang Christmas songs and had their presents ready to pass out.

Here are some of the residents opening their gifts and showing me what they received.

Daniel (the Activities Director) took the girls whose recipients weren't in the lunch room to their rooms. This lady was so precious. She told Samantha that it was her birthday and Jesus birthday and she was 94 years old. She kept smelling the gifts and letting us know they had an odor to them. She clarified that it was a pleasant odor. It got the girls giggling that she liked smelling her gift. Daniel told us as we were leaving that she has no family. So, no one to visit her.

Now an update on Samantha: Thursday (Dec. 11th) Samantha didn't feel well. Her stomach hurt so much. It would hurt after she took her medicine. She had the same problem on Friday and that was her best friends slumber party. I talked to the mom about Sam's issue with her stomach and the medicine and we decided to let her go ahead. Sounds like she had fun at the sleepover. Then she was dropped off in the morning at the GS Christmas party. She was doing well to start with but by the time we got to the rest home I noticed Samantha had withdrawn from everyone. Her friends noticed also. Samantha told me her stomach hurt so badly and that she was in a lot of pain and felt weird. She did make it through the "adopt-a-grandparent" project. When we got home she spent the rest of the afternoon resting at home.

Currently she is making sure she eats enough food before she takes her medicine to help keep her from getting sick to her stomach.

Girl Scout Christmas Party

We had our annual Christmas party on Sat. 13th.


The girls did several crafts and played games.
One of the games they played was a 3-legged race with huge Christmas stockings.

This next game was decorate your leaders. The girls broke into two teams and each team had the same supplies. They decorated us with all the supplies.

Not sure if you can tell but I have bows on my shoes. The girls had a great time making Jill and I look like a beautiful Christmas present.

This year instead of doing a cookie exchange and recipe book we did an ornament exchange. The girls did a cake walk and when you land on the number that was called ...then you got to pick a wrapped ornament. We did not do where you steal the ornament from each other.

Pretty Cool

An update on Samantha

Samantha has been such a trooper for us. At class last Monday Samantha's hips hurt so badly that she could barely walk down the stairs. Everyday when she gets up in the morning something different hurts in her body. So, she asked me to call her dr. at Dorenbacher. Last Thursday I talked with her Dr. and he decided the best treatment at this stage is to continue having her taking Aleve 2x a day and to increase her chemo drug up to 6 pills a week. Before this phone call she was weaned down to 1 pill but her normal dosage was 3 pills. Samantha wasn't happy about the increase but she understood it's whats best for her now.

Last Friday night we were in World Market looking around when Maddie came over to her Dad and told him Samantha was on the floor and couldn't get up. Apparently, she had squatted down to look at a toy on a lower shelf and couldn't get up because the pain was too great. Jay had to lift her up. After she was able to get the pain to subside she wanted to keep shopping at VRC. She was still experiencing pain but didn't want to be pushed in a stroller. I suppose no 12 year old wants to be pushed around in a stroller.

On a positive note we will be attending a camp this summer for kids who have JRA (juvenile rheumatoid arthritis). The camp is for the whole family. It is sponsored by The Eagles who put on charity events to raise money for the camp this past year. This camp will be free of charge to the families. Praise the Lord!