Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is always a good time to take stock of what you’re thankful for, and CNDKmen are thankful for quite a lot!

First, we all agreed that Rory is what we are most thankful for in 2014. We just can’t get enough of his story of premie triumph! And we’re so impressed with Colette and Colman’s parenting of him both in the hospital and now home. Rory was discharged from the hospital Nov. 22, and like his other moves between levels in the hospitals, it came up very suddenly and he did great with the change. Here he is at home with Colette and his granny and grandad. Look how strong he is and how good at holding his back and head up straight. Colette said this is common in premies because they have not spent the last 3 months hunched forward in fetal position, but doesn’t it look like Rory is particularly advanced in his strength? Super Rory!

Second, we were very thankful that Grandpa’s bike accident wasn’t any worse than it was! His orthopedic surgeon reported that both the knee and ankle surgery went very well, and Grandpa was discharged from the hospital to a rehab facility the day before Thanksgiving. Here’s a photo of his leg post-surgeries.

In the photo, he has a compression device on the left leg to prevent blood clots.

We were sorry that Nana and Grandpa couldn’t make it to Chicago for Thanksgiving! Here’s some photos of the dinner at our house. The Wests joined us (bringing delicious oyster stuffing, appetizers of shrimp cocktail and salmon cream cheese toasts, and brownies and ice cream) and we had a delicious dinner and some spirited games of Wits & Wagers and Say Anything! It was great to have Liam’s roommate Frank with us too. We’ve been enjoying getting to know him and learning more about China. For one thing, we found out that in China they call Peking Duck “Beijing Duck”.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!