Florida was tricky this year. We had really hoped Tessa would be all healed from surgery so she could fully enjoy Florida, but that wasn’t the case. Her doctors gave us their blessing to go, and we were all in desperate need of a break from trips to Mayo. Tess knew she wouldn’t be able to swim, but we weren’t sure how she would handle that when she actually saw the pool and hot tub filled with her friends.
Turns out, she’s a champ. She did so good. Spent her days playing on the beach, absolutely loved hopping in her “canoe”, and just enjoyed being outside with friends. We took two weeks off from stressing over her output numbers and visiting with doctors, and it felt so, so good.
First things first: decorate the condo and the beach for Christmas.
Just kidding. We are not that talented.
We did enjoy our usual pre-Christmas events, like dinner/gifts/cookie decorating with Ben’s family
as well as finding some spectacular lights at the Tampa Zoo,
and a Christmas dinner party at Ben’s parent’s house.
Before the dinner we took a few family pictures and this is definitely my favorite.
We enjoyed good friends, a gorgeous sunset, and messy green icing.
We made our gingerbread man, left a piece for Santa, and sent 4 excited kids to bed. One kid had trouble sleeping and ended up snoozing on the couch, so he sorta saw Santa delivering presents.
And Jingle didn’t forget to remind us of the real meaning of Christmas.
A needed get away for all and so much fun!
So glad that it ended up being a great trip, with no doctors poking and prodding! She continues to surprise us ☺️