No surprise to everyone....yesterday was Thanksgiving.  Don't get me wrong, our family has so much to be thankful for.  That being said (and you know there is a story to go with our day) a holiday at our home is filled with fun, laughter, thrills and chills.  Allow me to give you the rundown of the day.

The morning started at 6:00 am because God forbid my husband would even consider sleeping to 7:00.  At 6:15 he announced that Mommy was waiting in the kitchen to start the turkey.  I told him to have her come snuggle with me in bed for a half hour or so.  He told her that I wanted her to call me on my cell in an hour.  I don't know....

The turkey was stuffed and in the oven by 8:30.  One would think this leaves three hours to watch the Thanksgiving Day parade and await the finish complete with Santa.  But no, my husband is in full gear working on side dishes and wanting to know when the turkey will be done.  Could I just breathe and relax a little????!!!!

By 8:00, the family started rolling in.  First is Pook with fiancée and their dog.  Now, keep in mind our four dogs are here, Mommy brought her dog, and Pook's makes six total.  By 9:00, Superson and his wife arrive with their dog.  We are now up to seven dogs.  The humans are close to being outnumbered.  Wait, it's going to happen, because around noon, Mini Me, the Admiral and their three dogs arrive along with the baby.  And our friends joined us for the day.  Human score:  13 adults and 5 children,  Animal Score: 10 dogs and 2 fish.  The fish will be important in a minute.

Honestly, dinner and the majority of the day was pleasant.  Once Santa arrives in the parade, we can officially start listening to Christmas music and watch Christmas movies.  By 4:00, we were all stuffed more than the turkey was, the majority of the dishes are done and people are falling asleep on the couch.  Could it be that we made it through the day without a major event?!  Notice that I said major.  There were small tiffs between the grandchildren throughout the day.  One of them clubbed another in the back of the head with a hand weight.  No harm, no foul..

Did I mention too, that Mommy's dog is getting up there in years and did not handle the trip too well.  Men in the family appear to be oblivious to this and we discover at least six large and small areas where she has gotten sick.  The clean up effort took no less than five people.  Good news, today she is better.

Around 9:00 we decided to ship the four oldest grandchildren to bed.  (The holidays always bring group sleepovers).  As Mommy and I are getting the gang ready to put to bed (sideways on the bed by the way), there is a loud crash.  Horror and shock immediately take over as we realize that one of the has decided to swing the hanging fish tank and it crashes to the top of the desk that it is sitting on.  It shatters.  Water pours everywhere on top of the desk and into the drawers.  We start herding children away from the glass.  The fish however cannot be located and the fish owner is now panicking.  After a full three minutes without air, we locate the fish and get it into water.  Trixie survived.  She was swimming a little funny for a while, but it's okay...  The grandson now walks into the room and panics that his fish is hurt and he starts screaming. 

So, I have the uncles scrambling for cleaning supplies and the vacuum.  My mistake, because I have now opened myself up for ridicule.  We  have to use the plug to turn the vacuum on and off because the foot control is broken.  The room immediately starts to smell like coffee because a week or so ago, Doc spilled coffee all over the kitchen and he used the vacuum to sweep it up.  The kids, who will be sleeping in this room start to complain about the smell.  Apparently, Pook's dog did not like the smell either because he vomits on the carpet in the room.  40 minutes into this disaster, we have the two fish safely in a new tank, the kids have brushed their teeth and are in bed, desk items are spread around the room drying, the carpet is clean.

I went downstairs for a nightcap.  I hope you had a Happy Thanksgiving!  We did!

Sorry for the two week leave of absence.  Lots going on with our family.  When someone is hurt or in need, our family tends to circle the wagons and give all the support we can to whoever needs it.  This time it has been the Surprise.  He has suffered four concussions since September.  The resulting symptoms and collateral damage has been a little overwhelming for each of us.  So sorry, this one will be a little more serious than I like to write, just because I think this is such an important topic/issue.

Concussions are nothing to sneeze at!  The symptoms vary with each person, with the level of impact and the area of the brain that receives the majority of the impact.  With four concussions, I can assure you that every area of his brain has been impacted.  This is not our first rodeo with concussions.  The Blonde suffered several due to car accidents and other adventures where she cracked her head.  With her, there was memory loss and difficulty handling stressful situations.  She also struggled to focus and concentrate was negatively effected and she lost her ability to think and act like a female.  By that, I mean that multi-tasking was very difficult, lol!  T the time she had her concussion from the car accident, she repeated herself over and over and over and over again!  "I am in my warmups.  I have a track meet today.  I am going to miss it, aren't I.  Where is Pook?  Is he okay?  I am in my warmups......."

The Surprise has had a whole different set of issues.  He had loss of balance that was pretty bad.  If he hadn't just finished playing a game, I would have thought he was tipsy.  He had no idea where who was and who we were.  In fact, The Blonde's boyfriend is now known by a new name every time the Surprise sees him.  He could not recall his name and it has now become a bit of a joke.  (always keep your sense of humor!)  Word recall was not good, lights and sounds bothered him a lot!  He was tired all the time, but had sleep disturbances.  The Blonde had sleep disturbances and tiredness too, but it was a little different.  You need to know that the brain changes how it functions as it tries to get a grip on things.  Someone with traumatic brain injury can think weird thoughts. 

As a parent, it is frightening.  Your child has an injury that no one can see.  Trust yourself! Fight for your child with respect to school and activities.  Their brain needs to rest.  Be an advocate and get them accommodations in school that allows for extra time to take tests and do homework.  Get someone to take notes as they cannot listen, take notes and absorb the information.  There sometimes seems to be a disconnect between the educational world and the medical world. 

Be patient when they get frustrated, and believe me this will happen often.  Some people with head injuries, shut down.  They are afraid of their thoughts and stop talking to people.  Others have emotional meltdowns!  All you can do with behaviors is continue to talk, get them counseling if they need it, be patient and love them.  The bottom line is that the person with the head injury does not feel normal.  All they want is for everything to go back the way that it was.  It can and will, but it takes time for healing.

We often forget and take for granted the simple things in our lives.  Our brains are complex, we don't think about what our brain does for us, but when something with it goes haywire.....  Hope you all take time this week and actually every single day to smell the roses!