Our Action Packed Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!!  Boy oh boy, did we have an "exciting" Thanksgiving here.  This year was already going to be a bit strange because it would be my first Thanksgiving with no extended family (Nicole and her family (my younger sister) visited us our first year in Idaho, and last year Tanya and her family (my oldest sister) came out to Idaho).  Although we wish we could have been with our families in Missouri, we were content to spend time together with just our little family, hanging out in our PJ's, eating a lot of food, and watching movies.  Well... none of that happened.  Instead we spent the entire day at the hospital.  Not fun.

We had some snow the night before Thanksgiving (about 4 to 5 inches), so that morning I got up to start prepping the food and Chris got up to go shovel our driveway.  He got about 3/4th of the way done when he slipped on a patch of ice, falling down, and feeling a SNAP in his ankle.  Not good.  He was able to call me on his cell phone, so I called 9-1-1, and our neighbor was also outside and brought Chris some blankets and propped his head up while we waited for the ambulance to show up (plus, our neighbor also finished shoveling our driveway... what a nice guy!!).  It took about 6 guys to lift up Chris (not that he's light, but they were mostly trying to figure out how to support his length).  One of the paramedics came over to talk to me, and I asked him if he could tell if Chris broke anything or if it could possibly just be a bad sprain.  His response was not the most comforting, "Well, I can't see a bone sticking out anywhere, but... um... it's pretty deformed."  So, off Chris went to the ER, where after taking X-rays they discovered he had broken his ankle in several places, completely dislocated the ankle joint, and tore some ligaments.  All this meant he would need emergency surgery.

We got home Thursday night about 8:30pm after a long day at the hospital, where Chris had a metal plate and about 10 pins put in his ankle.  A neighbor of ours was kind enough to watch Mitchell the whole time, so we picked him up, went home, and ate Burger King (our fancy Thanksgiving meal for the day, haha).  And I'm happy to report that our neighbor and her family thought Mitchell was the cutest, said he behaved so well, and they were amazed at how polite he was (they said that he said "thank you" for everything).  Yay, a point for a parenting win!  LOL.

Obviously, none of this is any good, but it's especially not good timing when our baby is due in a few weeks.  Haha, now we will have a new baby, toddler, and laid-up husband to take care of; wish us luck:)  But with all things considered, we find ourselves thankful this holiday season:  Chris's accident could have been a lot worse... at least he didn't fall on his head or seriously injury his back; as challenging as a new baby can be, we are still very excited to meet our little man and know things will work out (plus, my mom and Chris's mom plan on coming out to help... and I'm sure they are each going to stay a whole month, right?!?!!  LOL); and, we are not sure when Chris will be able to go back to work (he can't do his job as long as he has a cast on) but we are thankful he has a job where they do provide emergency, PAID, medical leave.  So, this isn't the greatest thing that could happen, but God is still looking out for us.  Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!

*****For those of you who are curious, Chris does have some pictures of his ankle BEFORE they fixed it.  I will not post them on the blog, because if you are like me, you may have a weak stomach and have no desire to see it.  But, we have had some curious people who wanted to see the deformity (including Chris's parents and some of his buddies from work), so he is willing to show off the pictures if you want.  Just text him and he'll be happy to send you a couple.*****

Not what you want to see out your window!

Examining the "deformed" ankle.

Trying to figure out the best way to move the really really tall guy:)  Haha, and poor Chris... when he got to the hospital, word had gotten around about him and nurses, other EMTs, hospital staff, etc. were all whispering and coming by to check out the really "tall guy."

We did go ahead and celebrate Thanksgiving the next day.  We weren't going to let a little ankle surgery stop us:)  Of course, we gathered around the couch instead of the table.

And here is our picky child, stuffing his face with the only food he would eat... a buttered roll.  Haha, of course, he also ate the desserts:)