Doing Things a Little Different

        Henry is HOME. After over 4 months of Henry being in the hospital we finally got to bring him home the day before Thanksgiving. We were so excited we could hardly stand it. We had been working hard to get things ready for him here at home.

        We spent the day saying goodbye to some very special friends.
 Have I mentioned how much we grew to love the Drs and nurses who cared for Henry??
 They will always hold a place in our hearts.
Then we packed up and brought our little boy home!! It didn't take long for the excitement to fade and for reality to set in. Of course we were so happy to have Henry home but our life was going to be forever different. I spent Thanksgiving at home with Henry while Art took the kids to eat with his family. Because of Henry's respiratory issues it is important for us to keep him away from large crowds and germs...Yes...life is going to be different. 
         Our little (or not so little anymore) family has had the tradition of going to cut down a Christmas tree on Thanksgiving weekend. We have tried different places over the years but we loved where we went last year and the kids were already asking to return to that farm.  Determined to get a tree and keep some normalcy for our other kids, we made a plan to get a tree on Saturday.  Art agreed to stay with Henry and I loaded up the children. We bundled up for our tree "cutting" adventure.
We left the house and the kids were surprised when we arrived here:

     Yep, that's right, we are at Target. Because of Henry's breathing issues I didn't want to put him at risk by bringing new possible allergens in the home. We ALWAYS opt for a real tree. So much so that we didn't even have an artificial tree. So we went to "cut" one down together. 

It didn't take us long to find one that we loved.

On the way home we couldn't help but stop for donuts because we knew dad would be doing this:

Donuts and Hot Chocolate..what could be better?

Then we proceeded to decorate that new tree right up!! There was much glee as ornaments from years passed were unwrapped and memories flooded the air.

Dad and Henry decided to do this:

I started the day mourning the fact that our tree cutting experience would not look like it did in years past

And at the end of the day I realized that traditions are far less about what you do, and more about who you do them with.

I sure love this family of mine! They are crazy to the core, but they are mine!