Merry Christmas...try CRAZY Christmas

Talk about a crazy Christmas! It all started the night before Christmas Eve as we got ready to go to Utah for Christmas and to see the newest addition to our family! Ron and Jessica adopted a beautiful baby boy!! Zachary Jesse West is the greatest gift our family could have received this Christmas! So we were getting ready. Mom took the Ex to have the tires rotated and they were all 4 dryrotted on the side walls to the point that we were lucky we hadn't had a problem. (Welcome to the heat of the desert!) Then Christmas Eve morning My brother-n-law Josh and a family friend Frank were supposed to rough up the brakes so they wouldn't squeal (since they didn't seal right when we had them put on a year and a half ago). They took them off only to find they were shot and so were the disks (talk about a bit of a delay), once again lucky for no problems. Finally they tracked down all the parts and replaced the brakes. So finally we the Ex was travel worthy. So since we didn't have room for all the presents, luggage, 5 adults, and 2 children in the car we did something my family has never done before....we opened presents on Christmas Eve!! It was Mom, Dad, Lori, Josh, Thomas, Maddison, and I. It was fun watching the kids...Maddy is almost old enough to really understand and fully grasp the excitement, Thomas is just a riot as usual! Anywhoie, on with the Saga. So once we were done we packed up, stopped and grabbed a bite for the road and headed to UT at about 8pm Christmas Eve. 10 HRS later @ 6am (our time 7 UT), snow and ice up the wazoo we finally made it to Midway, UT where we were staying in Lori & Josh's timeshare! It was a beautiful winter wonderland! We unpacked and went to bed before the sun rose and it was too late for Santa to come! 3 hours later we were up and getting ready to spend Christmas Day with Ron, Jessica, and Zachary. Well due to road conditions it took about 2 & a half-3 hours to make an hour & a half drive. Then it was time to make Christmas dinner and ooh and ahh over Zachary! It was fun until we had to drive home, I don't think it really stopped snowing the entire time we were there! 2 hours later we were back to the time share. Then on Friday we got up and headed back to Ron and Jessica's. We got there, ate lunch, and Dad had not been feeling so great and was just having horrible pain in his sholder. So I volunteered to take him to a quick care and since he'd probably be there a while I could run make some returns and be back before he was done. Not so much. I got an urgent call from Mom telling me to come back right away and pick them up. They were rushing Dad to a hospital by ambulance. He had a weird arythmia in both chambers of his heart but by the time he got the hospital it had corrected itself. A Priesthood Blessing, 2 Chest x-rays and ct scan of his chest, multiple ekgs and blood tests, & 2 & a half days later the doctors decided he had pnemonia and the arythmia was a 3rd part block which had actually been caused by some of his new blood pressure medication. Unfortuneately by this time it was already Sunday and Mom and Dad had decided that regardless of wether they actually let him or not (pending the results of some more tests) out the rest of us needed to go home and go back to work. The drive home was so much quicker! Only about6 hours which is closer to normal. So Dad after the doctors confidently told him he was fine...heart wise...he caught a flight home that night and Mom stayed behind to help Ron and Jess with Zachary, as originally planned. Dad's doing a lot better now and his recovery seems to be going farely quickly which is a good thing. So that was my CRAZY Christmas! A Christmas to remember. Full of trials monetarily, physically, mentally, and spiritually. But along with those trials came countless blessings and opportunities to grow.