Morgan and Charlotte's Adventures: What Really Matters

Our Christmas plans this year were that we were going to spend a little "pre" Christmas together a couple of days before Christmas with my brother's family, my sister and nephew and parents at my sister's house. We were going to spend actual Christmas day at Daniel and my house with my sister and nephew and parents. This would have been Daniel and my first time hosting Christmas at our house. I was really looking forward to it and had put a lot of work into planning our menu and decorating our house. I couldn't wait for Morgan to wake up and run into our living room to see the tricycle that Santa brought her.

Things changed Tuesday night when I got a call from my sister telling me that dad was going to have emergency eye surgery again. In one of my father’s eyes, the retina keeps trying to detach which would cause him to go blind in that eye. He’s just recently had 2 different surgeries that were absolutely horrendous. He’s missed months of work because right after each surgery he has had to lay flat on his stomach face down 24/7 for 2 WEEKS STRAIGHT and then he has to lay on his side 24/7 for weeks after that. Throw in the fact that he has back issues and can’t sleep on his stomach! Poor guy! Usually the surgeries are successful but they aren’t working for my dad for some reason. I can’t imagine how frustrated he must feel. He’s also not the type of guy to sit around. When he’s not at work, he likes to play golf and go fishing. Also, he was really excited for Christmas and getting to have his whole family together again. My heart broke for him. I know that bad things happen sometimes and we all have to just deal with it but I just feel awful for him. Please pray that the surgery works this time.

One good thing is that having to drop all my plans and just rush up to my parent’s house for Christmas has made me take a step back and remember what is really important. Time with family and appreciating what we do have is part of what makes Christmas so great. Changing my plans made me slow down and focus on what really matters. I probably got to spend more quality time with the family because I wasn’t focusing on all the little things I originally had planned.

As one wonderfully cheesy country song says, "You're going to miss this." Someday I'm going to look back and desperately wish things were the same. I'm going to think back to all the amazing memories with my family and I'm going to remember Morgan as a little girl and my heart will yearn to have it all back. I won't remember what dish I served or what the tree exactly looked like but I will remember spending time with family.

Since my brother was already in California, my sister-in-law and 2 nieces flew in to be with him for Christmas. Below, cousin Nicole and Morgan play on the couch together. They stayed with us in Fresno one night before we all headed up to Sacramento to be with my parents.