Finally Ready!

We are finally ready for good ol' St. Nick. The stockings are hung by the chimney with care, the gifts are wrapped, the kids are excited, vacation has started, and even Doug seems to be filled with some holiday cheer....really he is.

Tree up...check!
Gifts wrapped...check!
Holiday dance recital a success...check!
Visit with Santa...check!
Christmas movies watched...check!
Bailey's ready for Christmas morning...oh yeah!
Outside lights still working...check!
Norad Santa Tracker online...check!
A Christmas Story marathon ready to start...check!
Excited to see your family and friends...YOU BET!

All the making for a good old fashioned Griswald family Christmas! All we need is a Cousin Eddy! We probably have a few of those around! This gonna be the hap hap happiest Christmas since Bing Crosby danced with Danny "effing" Kaye! (that is from Christmas Vacation if you didn't know...my FAVORITE Christmas movie)

Watch...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mk74WprmZxY

Here a few pics from our good ol fashioned Hile family Christmas...




From our family to yours:

Merry Christmas, stay safe, count your blessings and PEACE ON EARTH!!!!

Love,
Doug, Jill, Abigail and Alison

Make-A-Wish

Becky and Susie from Make-a-Wish came over last night and spent some time getting to know our family. They brought Alison and Abbi a little gift and a game for our whole family. Besides some boring but necessary paperwork, they spent their time getting Alison to dream big. She was hilarious.

I tell ya, Alison is one funny kid. She wished for the coolest and oddest things. Everything from dancing on Broadway to laying on the beach rocking out to AD/DC (her father's influence of course). We learned her favorite stores are Old Navy and Best Buy. And, that she apparently has a thing for Johnny Depp??? Who knew?

What a neat organization. They think of everything. They made Alison feel so special and made her illness seem secondary, when really they make every accommodation we could ever need. They included Abbi and made her a part of it also. After a year of lung infections, hospital visits, needles, surgery, IV's and more doctor's appointments than I ever thought one little girl could have in a year...I am so glad this is happening for her.

We should know about her wish in a couple weeks.

Rock on!

Fa la la la la...la la la la!

I am all DONE shopping!!!! Wooowhoo!!!! Thanks to Sean and Kim who offered (their crazy) to take Abbi and Alison for a few hours on Sunday, Doug and I have completed all shopping, that includes, family, kids, teachers, nurse, co-workers, etc. etc.! We are done! Now the wrapping begins! Abbi and Alison will be having a few late evenings at Latchkey so mommy can have some wrapping time! I am so excited for some of our purchases this year. It will be hard to wait to Christmas morning.

Thank God for antibiotics, so that Alison was able to be in the general population by Saturday afternoon. She danced in her Holiday show, and was fabulous! She is a natural on stage.

Sweetfeet totally dominated in their game Saturday. Abbi played well and it was a shut-out, 9 - 0. These girls have really gelled as a team.

Doug is off to Washington DC on Wednesday and will not back till Friday. At least we don't have dance this week, so we can be close to home.

I got to spend the morning unpacking all the boxes that I packed on Friday. But, I am finally moved into my new office space. It is really nice and new. It overlooks the Arena and new baseball field. I have lots more room than before.

Tomorrow I am going to spend the afternoon at the Mid Ohio Foodbank, spreading Holiday cheer and doing some volunteer work. It should be fun.

Sisters...

Abbi was being so sweet to her sister tonight. Alison doesn't feel well, and Abbi was trying to make her smile. It made me think back to when they used to get along so much better, and NEVER fought. Check out this picture from 4 years ago...

Finally!

Monday night the volunteers from Make-a-Wish are coming over to begin the process to grant my baby girl her wish. She is so excited and has been very thoughtful about this. And, believe it or not, she is having trouble thinking selfishly. We thought that would be easy for her, but its not. She feels very special and thankful that she has this opportunity. Stay tuned for more about what little Al dreams up!

And...

Alison gained weight!!!! Not a ton, but she gained just over a pound. Dr. Shell was pleased. He said if she could gain a pound a month for a whole year, she could move out of the "RED" zone.

You would not believe what hard work it is to figure out what to give her and how often and will how much did she eat, etc, etc, etc.

It will be hard work, but I am hoping we can do it. She had a great appointment overall!

It was high time we have some good news around here. Yeah for Alli!!!!!

Clinic Day

Today is a Tuesday and that takes Alison, Doug and I over to Nationwide Children's Hospital for CF Clinic. I am sure it will be more of the same...she is too thin, doesn't eat enough calories and more talk of another G-Tube. Blah blah blah. Haven't they caught on to her yet? I hope to be able to get them to hold off on any decision till after the holidays and her b-day. Then if things aren't better...well I can run, but I can't hide.

Work is crazy...we are packing up our office and moving to our new floor, back over to the Plaza One building, into a pretty nice space.

The house in and out is all decorated for Christmas, so the girls are really starting to get excited. I need to finish up just a few more things and then the shopping is done...on to wrapping. Anyone interested in some kid swapping for wrapping purposes please let me know.

Alison's dance recital is on Saturday. She is dancing in 2 shows this year. She is excited. It will be her first recital since joining the competition team. I can't wait to see her class on stage.

Later!

It's Monday!!!!!!!

Happy Monday???? Are Monday's ever happy?

So, today I joined Facebook after lots of encouragement from my sisters and some others. Bear with as I was not on my home computer where all my pictures are. I will post some tonight. I have lots of good ones from Thanksgiving weekend. Zach had quite a visit with his Uncle Doug and was introduced to "manhood"?? More to come on that one.

This past weekend we had a great visit with our family from Toledo and then celebrated some family birthdays, and headed to Lima. Jim took us to his Holiday Party and Paradise Island was playing. It was so fun. Sean (sp) Booker, the vocalist, remembered Doug and I and she visited with us during her set break. It was fun to catch up, she could not believe my babies were going to be turing in 8 in just 4 short weeks. Her son is 12.

Then in Sunday we just vegged out watching Football and playing with kids. Abbi took a tumble down Jenn and Jim's attic steps. She fell down the entire flight. Luckily, she escaped with just some embarrassment, a bruise and was VERY scared. But all is well now!

Jingle's the elf is back in our house and has spent a lot of time in our pets stockings. Keegan and Lilo have been up to no good!

That's all for now! I have lots of pictures to post when I get home.