Weekend Recap: Friends, Family, & Football

We had a great last weekend before Ben's surgery!  I am trying not to stress too much, but it was definitely nice to have a lot of distractions!  I have to give a quick shout out to my super sweet co-workers.  I had just finished seeing my last patient on Friday afternoon and I walked in to the break room only to be greeted by flowers, my favorite treats (fruit, veggies, hummus, etc), and my beautiful co-workers!  I was totally confused when I saw a card with my name on it, but after they filled me in that it was nurse practitioner appreciation week, I was beyond touched by their kindness!  Even though I complain about how much I work, I am truly blessed to work with such thoughtful people.   After stuffing my face with snacks, it was time to go home to my boys for our "Joy to the 'Wold" party!  As much as Andy loves Christmas, it's his birthday after all, it takes a little convincing to get him to want to get a jump start on the holiday fun.   However, after I stumbled upon a Christmas Vacation drinking game on one of my favorite blogs, he was much more willing to start decking the halls.  We actually played this in July, but vowed to play it again at a more seasonally appropriate time.  Our friends Bert and Anne were quick to jump on board and even ordered festive t-shirts with us.

We decided to go with a Mexican theme, so Andy whipped up some delicious (as always) chicken tacos.  I had a hard time resisting each and every festive thing I saw at Target, but I was magnetically drawn to the red and green chips or the Santa koozies.  (and the green and red straws...and the festive cupcakes...and the holiday candy...and so on and so on...)  We wanted to be official, so all of the rules were written out and Andy recited them before we started.  Everyone was a winner, but I think Andy took the cake for having nearly the entire movie memorized.  I win with the Home Alone recitation game though.  (And we did watch that after round one. ;))

While our little elf unfortunately had to go to bed before the movie started, he made sure he was up with the sun for Christmas tree pancakes.  Believe it or not, he was interested in everything but the pancakes, but I am at least thankful that the sprees candy cane helped distract him enough to get his yogurt down and a picture of him with his festive headband.

On Saturday we were supposed to hang out with Ben's bff Maddie and some of my college bf's, but since Maddie was a little under the weather, Ben and daddy bonded while I went to Sarah's for some quality girl time.  While we missed the rest of our crew, we still managed to have a blast catching up until we all could not keep our eyes opened any longer (i.e. before 10:00...)  We ended up meeting for brunch on Sunday morning.  Maddie was doing a little better and I wasn't as nervous about Ben getting sick at a restaurant as opposed to her house where he would be putting all of her toys in his mouth, I'm sure.  Not only did I fail to get a picture where both of them were looking, I apparently couldn't even get one of them to look my way.  I'd say they both sat in their highchairs for the majority of the meal, but it wasn't quite as relaxing as the wine and pizza we had the night before.  :)  LOVE hanging out with them though!

On Sunday afternoon, we headed to Andy's parents' house for some football and so that some of Andy's relatives could finally meet Ben!  Since the game was fairly painful yet again, Ben found other ways to keep himself occupied.  Super-sized checkers, anyone?

All in all, it was a great weekend.  I barely had time to worry about Ben's upcoming surgery, though now I'll probably be thinking about it as I try and fall asleep.  Praying so hard that everything goes as smoothly as the last one!