Merry Christmas from the Kroekers!

Here we are, it's Christmas Day! We had a great week leading up to day, starting with the Facebook family Christmas party last Thursday evening. It was at Lumaze, an indoor light display in Seattle. We had a good time, it wasn't the most awesome display but it was indoors and the kids had a good time. We even convinced Adam to ride the little kiddie train with us, which he was quite adamant at first that he did not want to do (protests with a huge smile and movement towards the protested activity generally means he actually does want to do it, he just needs us to push him to do it!). We had a pretty relaxed weekend just getting ready for Christmas, and on Monday night we had our "Christmas Eve" with the kids. We decided that it would be better for them to open their presents on Christmas Eve morning since we were flying out Christmas Day in the evening, so far I am happy we made that decision! They got their new pajamas and stockings and got us up bright and early Christmas Eve so they could open their presents (although not as early as I remember getting up, I remember it being a struggle to stay in bed until 5am! Sorry Mom and Dad!). We had a great day yesterday playing all the new games, putting together Lego, and just hanging out. What a great Christmas, and it's only just begun! Tonight we fly out to Calgary to have our extended family Christmases. T minus 8 hours until our flight leaves! Better go pack!

Less than a week until Christmas!

Whew, here we are on December 19th! I am officially done my Christmas shopping and I'm ready for the holiday break! Two more days with the kids in school means I have to do as many things during the day that Adam won't tolerate in the next few days as I can, tomorrow will be vacuum and steam mop day! And I guess play as much piano as possible. I am looking forward to no more lunches and schedules for a while, we will enjoy some lazy days at home leading up to Christmas:-). 

The last few weeks have been kind of a blur. Shopping, appointments, Facebook Christmas party (which was a lot of fun!). We met with Adam's ABA team a few weeks back and talked a bit more about his compulsive behaviors, I think they are trying to formulate some new strategies as they learn more about what triggers his episodes, how intense they are, etc. I am not super hopeful for anything to drastically change, but if they can give us some tools to try and minimize the repetition I am all for it! I feel like he has dialed it back a bit the last week or so, which is interesting because upcoming breaks often make him more stressed. Hopefully the Christmas break is a wonderful, relaxing time for him!

Not really much else to report! We leave on Christmas Day in the evening, so I will try and update before we leave so I'm not too overwhelmed with pictures to organize when we get home. Merry Christmas!

We survived! And Thanksgiving weekend fun:-)

Brian made it home from his long trip and we all made it! He got home from Singapore/India/Las Vegas last Monday. I feel like he should do his own blog post about how it all went (which of course he won't) so I did include a few pictures that he took. It sounds like his birthday trip to Vegas was a lot of fun! The Oilers played an awesome game for them, so that's a big win right there! 

The kids and I did fine most of the 10 days he was gone. I did get tired of being the "on" all the time, but Adam wasn't really any worse than he would have been if Brian was here so that was good. His latest repetitive stint is making us repeat an exact phrase, so while that is exhausting, at least we don't have to guess at what he wants us to say. It is pretty incessant though, not many breaks to be had right now. He pretty much has to leave the room in order for us to talk about anything, but at the very least he has been better about leaving sometimes so we actually can talk. It sounds like we are going to talk about phasing out the repetition with his ABA team, something that was not encouraged the last time we discussed it. We are meeting with Bill (the guy at ORL that knows the most about repetitive disorders) on Thursday and I think we are going to come up with an "extinction" plan. I have no idea what this would look like for him, but all I know is that we are very open to trying whatever plan they can come up with! 

Brian had his 40th birthday last Wednesday. We didn't do anything too extravagant, seeing as he just had his birthday weekend trip to Vegas:-). We went out for dinner, which may have been more of a treat for me because it meant I didn't have to cook! Thursday we went to the Daveys for Thankgiving dinner. It was delicious and we had a great time! So thankful for such good friends! We put up our Christmas tree on Saturday, and so far Jasper hasn't gotten into it so fingers crossed that continues. Sunday Lynsey and I went to see Frozen 2 which we both enjoyed. A nice holiday weekend!

Christmas preparations are in full swing. We have a good start on the Christmas shopping, and a pretty solid plan for whatever we haven't bought yet. As much as I wanted to tell the kids that the dog was their birthday and Christmas presents for the next 10 years I knew that wouldn't fly:-P. To be fair he is ongoing work for me, so it should count haha! I am always trying to get him together with other dogs so he can play and continue to build his doggy social skills, it's just like having an only child in that respect! We love him, it's already hard to imagine life without the little guy!