Thankful for family this holiday season

The holiday season has officially started and it kicked off with Thanksgiving dinner at our house.  It began with what I call the BIG event. My husband and I and our two girls hosted our first Thanksgiving dinner for our whole family. There were 19 of us who gathered around the table eating everything from smoked turkey to homemade frosted peanut butter brownies.

The feast was fabulous. Everyone brought a dish to share which covered several tables. Our family made the main dishes including a smoked a turkey, oven baked turkey and a ham. Since my husband loves to use his charcoal smoker,  not only did he slave over the smoked turkey for 12 hours, but he also made a delicious smoked fish spread, which happens to be my sister Kori's favorite appetizer. 

We had a great time preparing for the celebration from decorating the tables to making the food. My daughters, Randi, 12 years-old and Graci, 10 years-old,  helped prepare some of the dishes including one of my favorite desserts,  Grandma Hodge's frosted peanut butter brownies.  They are to die for and the girls made it perfectly!

This year only my side of the family was able to attend our first Thanksgiving feast. My husband's side of the family celebrated in Fort Myers. It was still a big gathering since my brother and sisters are married with children of their own. As our families have grown, we decided to give my parents a break from having Thanksgiving at their house. Now each one of us kids hosts Thanksgiving every other year. The opposite years we go to our in-laws for Thanksgiving.

The tradition of  taking turns with our families for the holidays is something  we started when my sister had her first child, the first grandchild on my side of the family.  When my husband and I got married we followed right along with the tradition and  divide the two big holidays Thanksgiving and Christmas between my family and my husband's family. It works our pretty well and helps so we aren't running from house to house during the holidays. We are able to spend quality time with our families.

My girls love playing with their cousins. They all get along so well and have a lot of fun together. This year the kids prepared a show for all of us and sang songs. It was also my youngest sister's baby's first Thanksgiving. She is the youngest of the nine grandchildren at nine months old.

It's amazing to watch the kids grow up from the youngest now who is nine months old to the oldest who is 18 years old. How time flies.  Our family is so blessed and we have so much to be thankful for.  I know I am thankful our first Thanksgiving dinner went off without a hitch and we don't host another Thanksgiving  dinner for another eight years. When you have a big family and everyone takes turns you don't do it that often. I have to admit it was fun and I am truly grateful for my parents and my in-laws for all the Thanksgiving dinners they have prepared for us. I am also so glad we had the opportunity to host this family event and all be together.

Legoland Family Adventures

Legoland Florida Resort Movie Premiere of the LEGO Movie 4D: A New Adventure
Photo courtesy of Legoland

My girls, Randi and Graci, ages 11 and 10, were so excited to go to the premiere of The LEGO Movie 4D: A New Adventure at the Legoland Florida Resort in Winter Haven. Our family was invited to attend this red carpet premiere, and the girls could hardly wait. When I told them we were going, they couldn't stop jumping up and down with excitement.

Jack Griffo, star of Nickelodean's
"The Thundermans"
Photo courtesy of Legoland

Several celebrities from the Disney Channel and Nickelodeon were
going to be there along with social media sensations, the Eh Bee family, who my daughters watch on YouTube. They told me, this was going to be the best night of their lives. The girls had never been to a movie premiere event, so this was exciting and nerve-wracking at the same time because they didn't know what to expect.

Eh Bee Family
Social Media YouTube
photo courtesy of Legoland

Let's fast forward to the day of the event. It was a weeknight, and we were leaving right after school got out. The weather was bad. It had been raining all day and was still raining when we left. Usually a drive to Legoland from our house takes about an hour and a half.

We left in plenty of time, so I thought. We were stuck in traffic for hours. I had never seen it so bad. It took us two hours to travel what usually takes 45 minutes. It was frustrating, to say the least, and it looked like we were never going to make it for the event.

The girls were sad and heartbroken. I felt terrible because I knew how disappointed they were and knew how they had been looking forward to this event.

My husband was the only one in the van with his head on straight and thinking logically, telling us we weren't going to make it there on time, and the weather was too bad for us to continue. Someone almost smashed into our van early on in the drive, so I knew he was probably right.

We decided to head back home and visit the park on Sunday. Little did I know that decision would turn into a wonderful family adventure. The weather was beautiful! We couldn't have asked for a more gorgeous Florida day. We drove to Legoland and got there within an hour and a half. It was like night and day from our drive earlier in the week.

Watching the girls faces and reaction of seeing the huge Legoland sign for the first time was priceless. They were so excited to arrive at the park.

Once inside the park, we saw huge Lego models in Miniland, which were breathtaking. It was amazing to see how many hours of time and how many Lego bricks were used in each one. The park is huge and, if you didn't know, was built on the old Cypress Gardens. The botanical gardens were preserved and are part of Legoland.

Not only are there tons of Legos to see, there also are rides and shows. Of course, we went on almost every ride. The girls enjoyed the roller coasters the most. There are several roller coasters, each one little different than the other. The girls favorite was the Coastersaurus. We were able to go three times in a row on that one!

Even though the fairly new Legoland Resort hotel was booked, the crowds weren't bad. We had a five-minute wait or less at most rides. Not having to wait in line for rides was something I wasn't expecting, especially in season and on the weekend. We really lucked out!

My husband and I went on almost all the rides with the girls. Parents, especially moms, if you can, don't miss out on going on the rides with your kids. Sometimes as moms, we think, “I'll sit back and hold all the belongings while dad goes on the rides.” No moms, you go too! You'll be glad you did and your kids will remember it.

After the rides, we were able to watch the LEGO Move 4D A New Adventure. The red carpet was still there leading up to the theater. Several of the characters from the movie were there too, and you could take pictures with them.

Photo courtesy of Legoland

The movie was about 12 minutes long. I had been to 3D movies before, but never a 4D. If you are
wondering what happens as part of the 4D, there's wind, water, fog and strobe lighting during the movie.

Our day couldn't have been any better. We stayed until the park closed. We'll never know why we didn't make it to Legoland on our first try, but our second time around was something we'll all cherish forever as a family!

TIPS and SAVINGS for parents & kids

1- The earlier you book your tickets the more money you can save. Florida Residents can get a pass for $99 per year. Parking is $17 but you can pre-purchase for $15 online
Free child ticket with purchase of adult ticket special offer click here. Good until 2/28/16

2- Great park for family. Kids 2-12 will enjoy it. There are special things for kids age 2 with low or no height requirements. Some of the rides have height requirements.

3- Don't forget to bring your Legos as part of the minifigure trading with Model Citizens or Legoland employees. It's free to do.

4- If you are interested in all your photos from the day in the park....especially the photos from the roller coasters, make sure you have a model employee write you photo number from each photo you have on a piece of paper. At the end of the day when you go to look at your photos, if you have all the numbers you can get all your photos on a disc for a special price.

5- My souvenir from the day was a Lego toy frame with our family photo on it. It's a real Lego that comes apart! I love it!

***Your kids can join the LEGO club for free and receive a magazine 6 times a year sent to your home. It's easy to do go to www.LEGO.com/Club

It's the time of year for Christmas family traditions

The holidays are a time of family, friends and holiday traditions. Yes, family traditions passed down from generation to generation can make the holidays fun and entertaining for your kids.

Most of you probably have at least one family tradition you do for the holidays. One of the reasons I love family traditions is because I get to experience and re-live some of the memorable moments I had when I was a kid. In my family we celebrate Christmas, so some of our traditions take place before Christmas leading up to December 25.

 

Our first family tradition for Christmas starts right after Thanksgiving, it's baking cookies. My mother-in-law actually started this family tradition with me. We spend an afternoon baking dozens of homemade cookies to give away to friends and family during the holiday season. My girls love doing this and can't wait to decorate and of course eat the cookies. We do this every other year, since we rotate spending Thanksgiving and Christmas with my family and my husband's family each year.

On the year's we have Thanksgiving with my family, we usually go shopping the day after Thanksgiving for Black Friday. Since the kids are off of school for a week during Thanksgiving, we usually take time to decorate the house that week. We put up an artificial Christmas tree, lights and hang stockings along with festive decorations throughout the house. I tried putting out the Elf on the Shelf a few years ago, but we had to send the Elf back to Santa. My girls thought it was a little scary having something move around the house each night.

A fun family tradition I know a lot of people do is sending out Christmas cards. My mom always sends out a family photo Christmas card, so when I started my own family, I continued the tradition. When the girls were younger I used to take them to see Santa in the mall and get a photo. I remember sitting on Santa's lap when I was little and he would always give out candy canes.

I know Santa is probably a tradition quite a few of you have in your home. The tradition of Santa bringing gifts on Christmas morning has been passed down for generations in my family. My girls also like writing letters to Santa and sending them to the North Pole.

A new tradition I started with my girls is a video from Santa. He delivers it to my email for them. The video is high tech with real reindeers and Santa personalizes the message specifically to each of my daughters. You can have your own message for your children for free by going to www.PortableNorthPole.com.

Ever since I can remember, as a child I was allowed to open one present on December 23, my dad's birthday. My parents now let my kids open a present on my dad's birthday.

Another family tradition is we open all your presents on Christmas Eve from family and on Christmas Day from Santa. My husband's family has a different tradition and has a family Christmas Day brunch and opens family presents.

One of my favorite traditions is going to church on Christmas Eve, singing "Silent Night" by candlelight and hearing about the true meaning of Christmas, the birth of Christ. I love seeing the church decorated with green trees, twinkling lights and beautiful red poinsettias.  On Christmas Eve, our girls sprinkle the lawn with reindeer food made from oatmeal and leave milk and cookies for Santa. 

I asked my friends what some of their favorite traditions and thought I would share some of them with you. Several friends had some of the same traditions as my family, like sprinkling reindeer food on the front lawn and setting out milk and cookies for Santa. Others had different traditions like stringing fresh popcorn around the tree, looking at lights on Christmas Eve, eating oranges with a candy cane, and playing BINGO with the family. One friend says each year she has Christmas Eve dinner with her in-laws and then the family flies out on Christmas to see snow with her family. Another friend's family tradition includes a Sweedish Christmas Eve dinner with lutefisk (a dried salted whitefish.)

This year think about your holiday tradition and if you don't have one maybe start one.

Why family is so important in times of crisis

My mom and dad with Governor Mike Huckabee in Israel

I was reminded once again why family is so important especially in times of sickness. My parents recently went on a trip of a lifetime to the Holy Lands in Jerusalem. It was something my mom has wanted to do for most of her life. They finally did it with a group led by former Governor Mike Huckabee and his wife Janet. 

My mom with Janet Huckabee in Israel

Their trip was phenomenal until my dad slipped on mud at the Dead Sea. He broke his ankle, knee and tore his rotator cuff. He ended up going to a hospital in Tel Aviv where doctors put a cast on his leg. Luckily the Huckabee’s had an orthopedic surgeon who was travelling with them. The surgeon was a godsend. He helped my dad and watched over him after he got hurt. My dad wasn’t the only one to break a bone. Two others also broke bones. A lady broke her arm and a Pastor broke his leg.

Even though my dad had just fallen, he
still managed to get himself down
to the Dead Sea

After the fall, my dad was out of commission and couldn’t do the rest of the tour. His fall happened on the sixth day of their ten day tour, so my parents ended up flying out of Israel a day early with the help of Janet Huckabee who found a flight for them. A special thank you also to the orthopedic surgeon who knew to cut my dad's cast before he got on that long flight.

When they arrived back in Seminole not only was my dad in pain, but my mom was also not doing so well. She was so sick she ended up in the hospital. She tested positive for the flu. She was also tested for Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS). MERS is a new viral respiratory illness new to humans being closely monitored by the Centers for Disease Control. My mom had all the signs of MERS, which are very similar to the flu including she has a low immune system because of her rheumatoid arthritis and she had ridden a camel in Israel.

My mom and dad riding a
camel in Israel

Because of this the infectious disease doctors wanted to test her for MERS. The test takes several days to get results, so she was put in isolation at the hospital and monitored for four days receiving lots of intravenous fluids. Everyone who entered her room had to put on a mask, gown and gloves. The nurses had to wear protective eye gear.

Me in the hospital with
all the gear.

Luckily the tests came back negative for MERS. While she was in one hospital, my dad had to have foot surgery at another hospital. It was suppose to be outpatient surgery, but he was so worried about my mom his blood pressure sky rocketed and he had to stay the night.

It was a crazy few days. Thank goodness my whole family lives close by. I have a brother and two sisters and we were all on alert taking care of both parents around the clock. While my mom was in the hospital, my one sister and I took turns staying with her. My youngest sister and brother took turns staying with my dad since he couldn’t move to well because of his broken leg.

My dad in the hospital in
Tel Aviv

If you’ve ever had any experience at hospitals, you know it’s important to be there if you can when a loved one is in because they need an advocate. I know it was crucial that we were with my mom, especially since she was on isolation. We made sure she got the medicine she needed and were able to talk to the doctor about her condition.

I don’t know how people do it when their parents get older and things like this happen and they stay months in the hospital or need round the clock care. As a mom of two little girls, a wife and working it can be exhausting. I don’t know what I would have done without the help of my husband to take care of our girls and my siblings and their spouses who all pitched in to help. My mother-in-law also helped watch our daughters. It’s times like these when you know how important family is and how a crisis can make your family even stronger. 

Community helps mom after hip replacement

This week will be five years since I had a pretty extensive hip replacement. As a mom with two small kids, ages 3 and 5 at the time, it was hard to handle all the things a mom needs to do and be out of commission for awhile. I am so thankful for my family and friends who were there with me during the surgery and the year of recovery. Yes, it was a year recovery. I actually couldn’t put any pressure on my right leg for more than 30 days. I was still using a cane on my 40^th birthday. I remember I was trying to get rid of the cane before my birthday, but the doctor said I still needed to use it a little longer.

I tell you all of this because having the surgery was such a blessing. I didn’t realize it at the time, but I realize it now. I am able to do all the things I use to do before the pain in my knee and hip got so bad, I didn’t even want to go shopping and if you know me I love to shop. I knew it was time for the surgery when I didn’t want to shop anymore. It hurt to walk and I didn’t want to take pain killers, even though I was taking about four Motrin three to four times a day.

You are probably wondering why I had a hip replacement at such a young age. Most people are 60 or older when they have a hip replacement. I was 39. The reason was because I was born with a dislocated hip.

Here I am in traction at 2 months old for 30 days. Luckily, I don't remember this.

 The doctors did what they could at the time to correct it. When I was two months old I was put in the hospital and in traction for 30 days. I had surgeries when I was a few months old, including a steel pin in my hip. After the surgery I was put in a body cast for a year. You don’t see too many kids these days in a body cast.  Again at age three I had surgery again and another body cast. I also had knee surgery when I was 9. My parents went through a lot with me. Years ago, being born with a dislocated hip wasn’t like today. They didn’t the technology they do today. My doctor told my parents by the time I was 40, I would need a hip replacement. He was right.

I was fortunate enough to be able to have one of the best doctors perform my hip replacement. He actually wrote articles and performed hip replacement surgeries on people who were born with dislocated hips. The reason my hip replacement was so extensive and I had such a long recovery time is because they had to cut the femur bone. The bone had to be cut to correct the leg length so that both of my legs would be even. By doing that my recovery time was a lot longer than your normal every day hip replacement.

I didn’t know until after the surgery that my recovery was going to be long because the doctor couldn’t tell for sure if he would need to cut the femur until her performed the surgery.

I am so thankful I had a great support team helping me with my kids at the time. I had both my mom and mother-in-law taking care of my two girls along with my husband. I also had a wonderful friend who helped me with picking up my girls from preschool and kindergarten. The women in my Bible study and church came to the rescue with meals for a full month. I couldn’t believe it. It was such a big help to have meals prepared every other night.

I can’t tell you how much a meal means when you aren’t able to cook. If someone is sick and needs a meal, I try my best to help out because, I know how thankful I was when I was sick and received a meal.

I learned so much from going through this surgery. If you asked me right after the surgery if I was glad I had it, I probably wasn’t because it was very painful and such a slow recovery. Today, though I am so glad I did it. I can’t imagine being in the pain I was in and living life in agony.

What really made an impact on me is the community of family and friends including neighbors who just did what they could to help me. Everything from my daughter’s preschool class sending a huge get well card with their handprints to other cards, flowers, to even cleaning my house for me. It was incredible. I couldn’t have done it having small children without the help of others. It’s those relationships that can help us in our time of need.

Thanks again to everyone who helped me and took the time to care.

Family Movie Night Goes All Wrong

Recently, my kids wanted to have a family movie night. I decided that I would get a movie that we would all enjoy and could watch together. My oldest daughter, Randi likes movies, my younger daughter Graci, not as much. Still we were going to watch a movie together and snuggle under the blankets and just have some family bonding time.

I happened to be out at the local Christian book store, when I saw they had family movies for $5. There were several movies to choose from. All of them the clerk said were “family movies.” I looked at titles and had never really heard of any of them and most of them didn’t have well known actors in them. I asked the clerk if he knew anything about the movies. He said he actually just watched the movie “Jimmy” about a special needs child who see angels, and it was fantastic.

I asked if it was a good movie for girls ages 7 and 9? He said he thought it was and he was so sure about the movie that if I didn’t like it, I could bring it back and he would give me my money back. I thought this must be a great movie. I was happy I had found what we were going to watch for family movie night!

When I got home, I told my husband and the girls that I had this awesome movie for us to watch and that the guy at the store said we would really love it. So, on Friday night we all gathered around and put the DVD in and started watching the movie. No sooner than a few minutes into it, I started wondering if I had the right movie. This movie started with a horrific water scene where a kid’s bike was thrown in a lake and there was a drowning scene. My girls were a little frightened.

My husband and I looked at each other wondering what the movie was all about. The problem was, I didn’t really know. I didn’t check the movie out before hand. I just played it in the DVD player. I usually always know the movie ahead of time. I at least have seen the movies my kids watch. They are young, so most of the movies they see are “G” rated movies. I think they may have seen a few “PG.”

This movie didn’t have a rating. I just assumed that it was a family movie because I bought it at the Christian bookstore. The problem was this movie was a little too much for my girls. It had violence including a scary kidnapping scene and a drug dealing scene.

If I had let my kids see this movie they would have been too scared to go to bed that night. My 9-year- old could probably handle more than the 7-year-old, but still it was a little much even for her. I didn’t know what I had gotten myself into. This was our family movie night and my husband had to keep pausing the movie and then fast forwarding it thinking the scary scenes would be over. 

I will say that the movie was an overall good movie. My husband and I ended up watching the movie because we wanted to see what happened in it. We kind of told the girls what happened because they wanted to know since they had seen some of the movie. 

After I watched the movie,I remembered there is a website that you can go on to find out about movies and see what they have in them and their ratings. I went online to see if this movie was on there, thinking if I had only done this first. This movie wasn’t on there, so it wouldn’t have helped me this time.  I will say that most movies are on the site. I thought it might be helpful for those of you taking your kids this holiday season to movies to be able to find out if the movies are for kids. There are several websites that rate movies. Here are two good sites that rate kids movies Kids In Mind  and Plugged In.

If I had to rate this movie I would say PG and I would say it is most appropriate for middle school kids. It is actually a really good movie, just a little too old for my kids.

I did end up calling the store and letting them know that they shouldn’t recommend this movie for families with kids under the age of 12. I guess what what one person thinks is ok for some kids, may not always be the case for others. My advice is to watch the movie before you watch it with the family, especially if you don’t know anything about the movie. I know for next time.

Inexpensive Fun Family Day Trip Adventures

The summer is a great time to have family adventures. My family and I went on two recent day trips that were very memorable.

The first adventure was to Caladesi Island State Park. It is located just west of the Dunedin Causeway and you can only get there by boat.  We decided to rent a boat on Indian Rocks Beach (Island Marine Rentals) for the day and travel up the intracoastal. The boat ride was fabulous. Our girls were so excited to be on the boat, and it was a gorgeous sunny day. We were able to see dolphins and enjoy the scenery along the waterways.

We docked the boat at Caladesi Island marina.  We got there right around lunchtime, so we at ate our packed lunch at the picnic area. On the top of our girls list was to find “pretty” shells. We strolled up and down the beach and found very “pretty” shells.

We discovered not only can you walk the beach and just relax, but there are trails you can follow that have a variety of plant and animals along it.  We were lucky and saw gopher tortoises that were nesting. If you prefer kayaking, there are kayaks you can rent and enjoy and 3-mile mangrove kayak trail.  There’s also a park for the kids.  So there’s a lot to do on island or you can just relax and get a tan.

The cost to get on the island was $6 for our family. I would suggest checking out the fees online before you go. If you didn’t have your own boat to take you, you can always take the ferry service from Honeymoon Island State Park.  There is a fee for the ferry service. Click here for a coupon for $1 off the ferry service.)

Our next family adventure was to a farm just north of Tampa called Sweetfields farm.  We travelled there to pick vegetables and to go through a giant sunflower maze.  The maze was incredible. This particular farm has two mazes a year, a sunflower and a corn maze.  Both of the mazes are over right now, but the corn maze will be ready in the fall.

 

You can still enjoy the farm and pick vegetables and berries. This was the girls first time to a farm and their first time picking vegetables.  The vegetables were all organic. They were also very big.

The girls were so excited to pick their own vegetables. We picked squash and zucchini and cucumbers.  Right now in the u-pick fields are blackberries. You can pick your own fruits and vegetables on Wednesdays and Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. The vegetables were delicious and our girls loved eating them because they picked them.

Two family day trips that were fun and ones we are ready to do again!