Change of Plans

After my second night at the Hospice House, Dustin and I packed up his car and traveled down to Camas, WA.  We were heading down to celebrate Christmas down at my dad and Karen's house.  Once there we met my Grandnan, Megan and Craig.  Karen's two boys, Adam and Brian, Brian's wife, Bethany and their children would also be there.

My dad!

We started the celebration with Karen's delicious breakfast casserole and drank mimosas.  After brunch we opened presents.  It is so much fun to see children opening their gifts and see how excited they got.  I spent most of my day playing with Brian and Bethany's 5-year-old, Kylie.  

How can you not love that smile?  Pure happiness.

She is just a joy to be around and made me smile and laugh all day long. After presents we enjoyed lounging while the kids played with their new toys.  I even put some pink glitter press on nails on Kylie! Later in the evening we went to our annual dinner at Twilight Pizza to play trivia.

I called it an early night and was sad to miss out on the night time fun that the rest of the family enjoyed.  Truthfully, I was just dead tired after two sleepless nights with my mom.  I am not sure how my aunt had managed to do this the past few weeks.

When I woke up this morning I had a knot in my stomach after having nightmares about my mom.  Dustin and I had plans to drive further south 4 more hours to pick up his new project car, a Camaro.  As we drove, the knot in my stomach twisted more.  I hated knowing that I would be so far away if anything were to happen to mom.  Dustin encouraged me to drive back to Tacoma with Megan and Craig.  I eventually took him up om the offer and was dropped off at Target while I waited for Megan to pick me up.  

While there I bought Craig and Megan's dog Luna some treats and toys before she went to stay at doggie day care for the week.

Luna!

After our drive, we finally saw mom and the first thing she said to me was "Where were you?  I missed you so much".  It broke my heart to hear that, but it confirmed my decision to go back early to see her with Megan and Craig.

Deciding what to order for dinner.

Mom randomly deciding to be a gangster.

It is times like these that are so precious to me.  Please let all of your loved ones know how much they are loved during the Holiday season :).