I promise to pray every night for her sir.

These are the words left on my son's facebook page from one of his soldiers.  Simple words that touch my heart and ease my soul.  I have never wanted to post about the difficulties that may come my way as everyone has hardships.  However, I am asking for any prayers, any strength and good wishes you can send my granddaughter's way.  She is in the hospital from a clot on her brain and has just been diagnosed with AVM or Arteriovenous Malformation. An AVM is a tangle of abnormal and poorly formed blood vessels (arteries and veins). They have a higher rate of bleeding than normal vessels. AVMs can occur anywhere in the body and never come to the surface.  Brain AVMs are of special concern because of the damage they cause when they bleed. They are very rare and occur in less than 1% of the general population.  Who knows why these things happen and to the smallest of us. The most innocent of life are children.  I will not dwell on the why but on the how we can help and support this sweet child so she is back to her princess dress imagination days.

Mom and dad are with her and will be living at the children's hospital for the next few weeks.  She has an MRI in the morning to see how far the swelling has gone down and how far the bleeding has diminished.  Once the bleeding has stopped, she will undergo an angiogram to determine the next step.  It appears that surgery to correct the AVM may be necessary.  My sweet 5-cheese ravioli has a long row to hoe and I believe in the power of prayer when it is given with love and care to one who needs it.  We will know more as the days go by.  Sea Witch   

Christmas Day - November 28th - Italy

Hello dear friends.  I'm afraid I have been remiss in my postings.  This month is proving busier then I had expected and I have not been posting as often as I would like.  I want to share a little bit of my time in Italy with my son, my wonderful daughter in law and the three raviolis.  To see Kit Kat again is always a joy as she is so full of life and energy and  sparkle and shine.  She makes me laugh all of the time.  To have the opportunity to hold my new grandtwins was heartfelt.  To be blessed with one sweet angel is a gift like no other, but to have two in your arms is more than I can describe.  I already miss holding them and seeing them laugh and coo and demand their meals.  They are simply amazing. 

You are probably wondering why I have my title as Christmas Day, November 28th.  Well, that is the day we celebrated Christmas in Italy.  My son and his command were given their deployment orders for December 2nd during the Thanksgiving week and so Army families were celebrating Thanksgiving and then two days later, following up with Christmas.  To watch my son and his wife prepare for this day with such grace and perfunction was a struggle for me to keep back tears.  I did not want to show them tears because they are both remaining strong in front of the little ones.  Unless you are or know a military family well, you cannot imagine the emotion behind being told out of the blue, this is the day one of your loved ones will leave to go into harms way.  It hit me square between the eyes at that moment that as adults, we all leave for work...grumble about our day and the issues we encounter, complain about a commute if you have one and then wonder how we will get supper on the table because we are tired from the day. But there is one big difference between our day and a soldier's day....there is nobody waiting to shoot us or leave road side bombs for us to trip as part of our work day.  Kerry is a seasoned Army wife and handles this with grace, aploomb and a quiet dignity.  I admire her.  For this third deployment, she has prepared a large jar marked Daddy's Hugs and Kisses.  Kit Kat and her daddy, filled the jar with enough kisses for the length of the tour and each night before Kit Kat's day ends, she can take one or two out as kisses and hugs from daddy.  If she is missing daddy at anytime, she may also ask for one during the day.  Every time I look at this picture I can't hold back the tears.  Something so simple as a jar with Hersey's kisses in it becomes a powerful show of love and affection from a daddy far away.

 

Decorating the tree the day after Thanksgiving.  Kaitlyn was thrilled with all of the hustle and bustle of boxes from the attic, stringing lights and making ornaments.  I had my "bag of tricks" filled with craft items and she ended up making lots of ornaments for the tree.  Between the glue, the paper, the glitter and the paint, ornaments were made and it was a lot of fun.

The tree, stockings and a lit fireplace.  Home at its best.

KitKat reaching way under the tree for gifts on their Christmas morning.

Jason gave special pieces of jewelry to both Kerry and Kit Kat.  For Kerry, a bracelet with Italian type charms of all of his ribbons and badges along with deployment stars and awards for her.  So many for all that an Army wife does that she had two full bracelets of Swaroski crystals signifing deployments, moves, and his ribbons.

 Watching my son softly speak to his daughter as he put the necklace he picked out for around her neck left a lump in my throat.  He gently told her that the pendent she now wears shows everyone that she is a daughter of a soldier.  "A soldier."   Such simple words he uses as both he and she are so much more.  But I find this is how military men and women speak of their service.  There are no braggerts within.  They understand the duty they perform and so freely give to our nation, it is not about titles it is about the service.

I am a daughter of a soldier.

I was taken to supper at a local restaurant with amazing course after course of freshly made pastas, salads and a main course, strong Italian coffee and dessert.  (I felt like a bloated tick when we left.)  So much food and all so good.  Kit Kat knows the owners and their children and so she sat down and colored pictures with them until our meals arrived.   No one speaks English and Kaitlyn is becoming very fluent and carried on a non- stop conversation with the owner's daughters in Italian.   It was sweet to watch.

Can you believe that these are twins!  Yes, Connor may have weighed less then Kelsey when he was born but he has sure made up for lost time.  He is slowly becoming a linebacker.  Kelsey is such a sweet little thing and is light as a little feather.  Connor is so big compared to his sister.  Twins are such unique siblings. 

Lots of bottle washing every few hours.

Beautiful mommy feeding the twins.  Talk about multi-tasking and she looks so good at the same time.

Following feeding is playtime on the blankets.  They love to kick and coo until they fall asleep. 

Kerry took me to this marvelous Christmas garden and craft shop.  Fell in love with this gold lame bean bag and actually considered carrying it on the plane. I mean, how cool is a golden bean bag?

Connor looking around and thinking deep thoughts.

Kelsey says feed me again.

I'm wearing my Italian pre-school pink smock and am ready to go to school.  It was a wonderful visit and I can't wait to see them again in the spring.  Sea Witch

One Jasmine Princess gown is on the way

"Grandma-ma, you know I have been dreaming of a Jasmine princess gown in pink and purple." With those words spoken by my sweet granddaughter, I headed out to my local fabrics store and purchased lilac satin crepe and pink and hologram chiffon along with beaded and sequined trims and giant faux rhinestones. She asked for a Jasmine princess gown in princess colors and as every little girl seems to know that princess colors are pink and purple, I had to comply.

Jasmine is the Disney Arabian princess and I could not convince my granddaughter to let me make her a traditional harem outfit so I created a gown that did not have the usual gathered waist but rather an A-line silhouette with a flared bottom. I added "veils" to the front and back and lots of sparkly beads and big princess rhinestones.

Her crown and veil can be worn two ways. She can wear the veils in the back with the large rhinestone in the middle of her forehead...just like Princess Jasmine.

Or, she can put the veils in the front if she must be mysterious. So I have packed this and addressed it to Italy and have let Kit Kat know that her gown is on the way. I can't wait to see my sweet girl in her new gown.

Kaitlyn with her new sister and brother. She is a good big sister!