A Mundt Family Christmas 2008

The following story was written by my Mom to be put on my blog for all to share. I hope you enjoy her wonderful writing as much as we enjoyed our Christmas holiday...

Christmas 2008 found the Mundt family all together at the farm house. What a blessing it is to see my grandchildren playing and running through the house of their Great-Great Grandparents. Coincidentally it’s the same house their Great-Grandmother was born in! How pleased George and Elsie would be if they were alive today! I often wonder what Christmas’s past must have been like in this old house. Sometimes I come across old photos of George with his horse drawn sleigh, the beautiful silver sleigh bells (which we still have) hanging around the old brown mare’s neck. I imagine how deep the snow was and how they must have had the old wood stoves roaring. I can almost smell the pies cooking in Elsie’s old wood cook stove.

The following family were here: Dave, Brandy, Jaycee, Jake, Shaundee, Brandi, Bradley, Jordyn, Jeylin, Kierra, Brad, Papa Dave, Grandma Velda (aka Granny), Grandma Marge (aka Nana-Nana) and of course me. On Christmas Eve we put on our Sunday best and as is tradition for our family, went to Christmas Eve Mass at our church, Sts. Peter & Paul. As usual the church was decorated beyond compare! We entered the church to the sound of beautiful Christmas carols being sung by the choir. The only lights in the church were the candles, the Christmas trees and tons of Christmas lights! It’s so wonderful to watch the awe in the little one’s eyes as they sat so patiently and quietly waiting for the baby Jesus to be brought to the front and put in the manger! Father Brad asked if all the children would like to come to the front of the church and sit around him on the floor as he read them the Christmas story from scripture. He interacted so beautifully with the kids as he told the story in words they could understand. He asked them questions and of course Jordyn knew the answers!

After church we headed home to start the traditional Mundt feeding frenzy. Every year we have sliced meats, cheese, salads, chips, dips and other foods we only prepare on Christmas Eve. We eat and drink like kings, play games, watch A Christmas Carol and of course stay up way too late! Finally it’s time to get the little ones to bed. I read The Night Before Christmas, the kid’s hang the “Santa Key”, cookies and milk are left for Santa (this year we added carrots for the reindeer) and then it’s off to bed! (The Santa Key is a skeleton key tied with a red ribbon that is hung each Christmas Eve outside on the door latch so that Santa can get into the house!) This is when the work really begins for us adults as it’s at this time that the gifts from Santa are placed under the tree. Finally we adults get to bed only to be up before daylight on Christmas morning. It is an old German tradition to have a pickle ornament on the tree. The first little child to find the pickle gets a special gift (this year it was a $1 bill). Jordyn had cased out the tree in advance and of course found it first!

Once all the gifts were opened and the mess cleaned up it was time for me to start round two of the feeding frenzy. As usual our turkey is as big as a Buick and this year was no exception. He was dressed and stuffed, put in Great-Grandma Mundt’s roaster and in the oven by 8:00 a.m. Our home smells so good on Christmas Day!!! We had turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, gravy, sweet potatoes, cranberries, a fresh vegetable assortment, pumpkin, berry and cherry pies. Of course we had tons of Christmas cookies, fudge and candies as well! The dining room table is set with my best Christmas table cloth, my china, crystal and Great-Grandma Mundt’s silver. We usually eat dinner around 2:00 p.m. After the table is cleared and all the dishes are done the games come out again and of course the boys head for the barn lot to shoot trap! Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas if the boys didn’t shoot up several hundred rounds of ammo.

This year we had a beautiful white Christmas so all the kids went up on the hill with the sleds and ATV’s. They built a big bonfire and had one heck of a time! When they finally froze out they headed back to the house for more food, hot cocoa and hot buttered rums!! After all of that the kids and Papa decided to go “drift busting” with the ATV’s as several of these country roads were drifted shut, well somewhere along the way Papa Dave decided that the old man was going to try to wrestle his boys (Dave & Brad) down. As fate would have it he got his lunch handed to him and his left earlobe nearly torn off! A trip to the E.R. and several stitches later, he was back in business. (By the way, this type of revelry is completely normal in our family!) You can’t buy memories like that.

I am truly blessed to be surrounded by my family and I thank God every day for them and for this old house. I pray that we share many, many more Christmas’s here on this old farm and I pray that long after I’m gone my children’s, children’s, children will have fond memories of Christmas here and of me.

Halloween 2008

Witches, goblins, ghosts and more...

Left us with candy galore!!!

This was Kierra's first Halloween and we had a blast!!! Not only that wonderful milestone but also, Jordyn did not dress up as a princess this year, talk about drastic changes in the Nielson household!

Our Halloween started on Thursday the 30th with the Halloween Bash at the kids' school. This is done every year and it is fantabulous!!! The gym is open for a two hour block and it offers so very much. Kids of all ages as well as parents and this year, grandparents (wink, wink) dress up and celebrate. You buy tickets at the door at a wonderful 5 for $1.00 price (proceeds went to the youth group) and scattered all over the gym are games for the kids to play. You receive prizes for participation and even better prizes if you succeed at the game's purpose. There is also a cake walk. Father Tom is a very talented man. He once worked in a flower shop with I believe a family member and he learned to make gorgeous gift baskets, flower arrangements and somewhere along the line, picked up baking and decorating cakes and such. I guess when you plan to live your life in celibacy, you have to know how to feed yourself and why not go all out. Anyway, there is a cake walk at this Halloween Bash and Father Tom makes all the cakes for the prizes. The first year we went he had a cupcake walk and there were over 100 fanciful decorated cupcakes to give out...they were amazing. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of that.

After about an hour into the party, Trunk-or-Treat starts in the parking lot. Parents pull their vehicles into the parking lot, decorate them up (there is a contest) and then distribute goodies to the "trunk-or-treaters". It really is nice not having to trudge door-to-door on an incredibly packed street. This year, they had a costume contest and Little Miss Kierra won her age group...when you see the pictures, you'll see why. My mom and I dressed up this year when we took the kids. She was St. Rita (fitting since she is named Rita) and I dressed up as a witch or according to some, dressed down...either way, it was fun!!

Halloween night, Brad and I took the kids to downtown Clarkston to go to the area businesses and scavenge for candy. They block off all of 6th Street and you just have a great time going from one place to the next in search of the mother load. We were about 3/4 of the way done and it started down pouring but that left us with a beautiful rainbow to enjoy! We decided we had had enough and spent the rest of the night seeing my Aunt and Brad's parents. All in all, it was a very fun holiday. So, without much further ado, I give to you our crazy bunch...

Mom's Update

Thought I'd let everyone know that Mom had her Doctor appointment today and while she is slightly improving, she still has another week of bedrest :-( She does however get to go to see the Specialist in Lewiston for her broken leg on Monday so at least she gets to see a little bit of the outside world. I am still undecided if I will be coming back up on Monday to stay for the week....I just don't have the gas money to drive nor the time as things at my own house are starting to fall behind. I guess time will tell though. Hooray for tomorrow morning though!!! We finally get to go home and see Daddy and Maddie!!!! Brad also has Friday-Sunday off so hopefully we'll have some fun times! Thanks again for everyone who prayed for her to be on the mend.

Bed Rest Update

First, I would like to say a BIG "Thank You!" to everyone who has been praying for my mom. My family, especially my parents, have been through so much this year that they need all the help they can get. I thought I'd give everyone an update on how she's been doing since being restricted to her bed.

Monday went well, she stayed in bed the entire day with the exception of two trips to the hospital for shots and blood draws and the same for Tuesday. By Wednesday, she was SICK of her room. For a couple days, she went to my Grandma's house (just across the drive way) and laid in her recliner all day long. We thought things were going well. They did decide that her blood wasn't thinning as fast as they would like so they doubled her shots. Instead of getting two a day, she started getting four a day PLUS blood draws. These shots burn and leave her abdomen completely bruised. They have to poke a different spot each time so she has about three or four lines across her belly of just bruise marks. I feel so bad for her. She decided that the medicine was starting to make her nauseous and so about twice a day, she would get a little irritable and need to just have some peace and quiet...not easy when you have three kids who love their Nana and especially love her when she doesn't get out of bed all day. But, we've managed.

Today, she went in at 8:00am to get her shot and when she came home, she laid on my bed so she could go through some of the paperwork with me in the office rather than me shuttling it back and forth between the two rooms. She started to feel nauseous and light headed so she decided to go get in her own bed. About 10 minutes later, she told me that she really wasn't feeling well and that she thought I better take her to the hospital. My uncle has been up visiting but at this particular moment, he was already in town (my parents live 6 miles from town) so I had to run across the driveway and tell my grandma to take her to the hospital so I could get the three kids together and take them to the babysitter. We all made it to the hospital and waited for test results. They ran an EKG on her and the reading came back abnormal so they thought she might have had a heart attack...Negative. Then, they thought the blood clot had moved...Negative. She had an abnormal reading on her liver but they decided that was just from a reaction to the shots and all the other medicine she has been taking as well as the other symptoms.

But, that's not the best part. You see, since this has all started, she has been seeing one Dr. but he is partners with another Dr. Well, her main Dr. was gone for whatever reason during the middle of last week and the second Dr. decided to double her dosage of shots (like I said previously), without talking to her first Dr. Today, in the emergency room, she saw her main Dr. and let's just say, he wasn't happy at all! This has happened quite a bit lately with her care and I've just come to the conclusion that the credibility of Grangeville's Syringa General Hospital is lacking and making it more like a "band-aid station" than a hospital. They are an acute care hospital but come on, a little communication would really make things run a lot smoother.

So anyway, it turned out to be a minor complication and all is well again. She doesn't have to take any more shots (at this point in time) which is nice but she still needs to go in and have blood draws to make sure her blood is continuing to stay as thin as they want it. The poor woman must feel more like a pin cushion these days than a human. After our three hour stay in the hospital, it was back home to bed and now, she must really stay in bed...no recliners or air mattresses...she's not happy because her wonderful, cheery and peaceful room now feels like a prison for her. Hopefully she'll be having an ultrasound later in the week and we'll know if the clots...yes ladies and gentlemen, she has three of them, have reduced in size.

So please, keep up the good work praying for her and my entire family as we continue to struggle through all the issues we are faced with.

THANK YOU!!!

Bed Rest???

Just wanted to update everyone that I need to go back to Grangeville today for the next two weeks. My mom has had a broken leg for 9 weeks and just discovered today that she has a blood clot in her thigh. The doctors have put her on bed rest for the next two weeks with the only movement permitted when she needs to go to the bathroom or take one of two trips to the hospital a day for shots. Since my dad has to work, I become her caretaker. Hopefully we can get her healed up in time for the Henderson (her family) Family Reunion which is scheduled to take place on the 18th & 19th of this month. Please keep her in your prayers that this blood clot goes away and doesn't cause any more problems with her health. I'm going to try and still add updates but we'll see how the time goes.