California

It's a very long story, and even you kind die-hard readers that read most of the drivel I post on this blog will want to be spared the details.  Basically, I had planned to go to California for a few days to visit a doctor with my cousin.  Wendy has some of the same headache-every-day type things I have, and her friend recommended this hormone specialist.  I had decided that since it had been a while since I had seen any kind of doctor for my headaches that I would go with her.  Worth a try, maybe?

But, then I had a follow-up with my ENT regarding a nodule on my thyroid that was found at the Mayo Clinic, and it had doubled in size.  It was decided that the best possible option (especially with my Dad's history of thyroid cancer) was that we should remove the half of the thyroid where the nodule is.  (Surgery is Wed, Dec 28th.)  So, with that likely to throw my hormones out of whack for a bit, I decided not to see the doctor in California.

However, I already had my ticket, and we were staying with my in-laws, so I went for fun anyway.  And we had a good time.  We visited the Los Angeles Temple, the doctor, Cal Poly (where we met Susan Egan and saw auditions for the production of Once Upon a Mattress at Cal Poly), yummy restaurants, Dreamworks Studios (where we met Wendy's cousin, who is an animator there, had lunch, and saw some really cool stuff), outlet malls, and the outdoor hot tub in my in-law's backyard (in December!)

I had fun just visiting with my mother-in-law and cousin, inherited some cool jewelry from King's grandmother, and finally found a winter coat--I just had to go to Southern California to get it. :)  It was a good trip, and even though I was exhausted when I got home, I'm so glad I went!

Christmas Day

Christmas Day was just about perfect.  We had a nice morning, sleeping in and checking out our stockings.  Mrs. Claus went a little crazy on the Halloween clearance candy, so there was a lot more than we thought!  Whoops.

We then had our traditional cinnamon pull-apart bread for breakfast and went to church.  It was such a nice service--the perfect way to celebrate our Savior's birth.

The girls insisted on changing back into pajamas for opening gifts.  I didn't argue one bit, you know how much I like my pajamas. King did his usual--wrapped up some junk (old batteries, a broken remote) to give the girls, so later when they opened an extra cell phone for the family from Santa, they thought it was fake.  That was pretty funny.

That evening,we gathered with some friends for games and goodies.  It must be said that our girls have some moves.  They danced like pros.  Hanging out with our friends made us miss our far-away families a little bit less.  It was a wonderful day.

 

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve, we had a delicious turkey dinner, read the Christmas story from Luke, and wrote our "gift" to Jesus (our spiritual goals for the year--something that will bring us closer to Christ and improve our relationship with Him) and put it in our special white stocking.  We then opened pajamas from Grandma and Grandpa D.  So soft and cozy.  Sleeping Beauty made sure to leave a cookie for Santa, too.  Santa came before all of the kids were asleep--he's just getting too old to be up for all hours of the night, I guess.  Luckily, the girls didn't catch him filling up the socks. 

Christmas Cookies

Vocal Cords

Besides the girls using their vocal cords to sling insults and scream of unfairness, we've never had much dysfunction concerning them around here.  Until Cinderella was having these really weird attacks where she felt like she couldn't breath, although it seemed that she was breathing fine.  And she'd occasionally, while at rest, make this weird almost wheezing sound.  So, we took her to a pediatric pulmonary expert, where they ran all kids of tests to try to ruin her lung function and figure out what was going on.  Turns out, she has Vocal Cord Dysfunction (a mild case), which actually appears to be a bit like asthma, but is in fact a condition in which the vocal cords don't relax after speaking, so do not let the air flow freely. 

I had never heard of this condition before.  It was a bit concerning, after reading some things about it, but after a follow-up with an ENT and a quick look via camera up the nose and down the throat (sounds gross, but she was a trooper, and actually thought it was cool to look down her throat) we are assured that she shouldn't really have too many problems.  She can learn to relax when it gets that way, and will probably grow out of it. 

In the meantime, we are encouraging her to use her "inside voice", like we did when she was a preschooler.  So she doesn't exacerbate her condition.  It's not true that this has any effect, but it's worth a try for more sibling peace around this place.  :)

Again

New brace face around this place:

She's excited. . .or was, until she woke up this morning in pain. . .