Merry Christmas!

We celebrated Christmas in Springfield with my family. We left on Tuesday the 23rd. Over the snow and through the ice, our trip was more adventurous than usual. Fortunately we avoided spending the evening in the ditch like some others. My brother Chris and Tonya had a very adventurous trip from Detroit, driving all night in order to make it home.

We celebrated our family Christmas on Christmas Eve. Santa brought Ryan a "busy driver," Jason a Playstation, Chris an engine efficiency gadget, Tonya a Coach purse, Gram tickets to Wicked, Poppy a Cubs fleece, and me, a purple down coat (ok, it was actually lavender). As my Mom would say, "it was the best Christmas ever."

It was a Christmas Day to remember...

On Christmas morning, while we were eating breakfast, we heard a commotion outside near the garage doors. When my Mom went to check, she found their cat, WhiteSox, motionless on the ground, surrounded by my parent's three dogs. My Mom brought the cat inside and it was obvious that something had happened to him - his body was limp, his eyes were unresponsive, and he breathing very heavily. We were sure that he had gotten caught under the garage door and had broken his neck. We couldn't let him suffer, so my Mom and I took him to the emergency vet clinic.

The vet performed x-rays, administered oxygen and gave him some pain killers. No broken bones. After two hours, WhiteSox was responsive and breathing normally. We're still not sure exactly what happened, but the vet is sure that he had a tramatic experience which induced shock. I think it was a combination of getting caught under the garage door and being pinned by the 3 dogs.

Long story short....
An emergency trip to the vet on Christmas morning - $350

Being able to bring WhiteSox home and having a good Christmas memory rather than a bad one - priceless

Those of you who don't have pets probably think we're crazy. Those of you who do have pets will understand.

The rest of the day was quiet and low key. Jason made a gingerbread house (picture here) and we decided that next year we'll make several so that we have a village. We drove home Christmas night so that I could work Friday morning.