Brody Had Fun Playing and Sledding with His Cousins

Brody, Jaden, Geordi, and myself took a trip to my Mom and Dad's for the weekend (Bill had to work).  We had planned to participate in the annual Lebanon Christmas Horse & Carriage Parade.  My parents have miniature horses that are trained to pull little carts.  The carts, horses, and those riding in the parade get all decked out in Christmas decor and lights for the parade.  It's a beautiful parade every year.  This year though there was quite a lot of snow and ice the night before the parade.  We were nervous the horses may get injured trying to pull the cart in the slippery conditions.  Also, the kids were so excited about the snow, it was clear they would rather play in the snow than be in a parade.  So, we opted for playing in the snow instead.  My sister, her husband, and my 3 nieces had come to town for the horse parade too.  We were very happy to get to see them all.  My sister and I, unfortunately, live about 9 to 10 hours away from one another.  Our two families don't get to see each other very often for this reason.  So, we were glad to finally spend some time together and excited that we had a lot of fun snow to play in too.  I just wish the visit could have been longer (and that my poor little niece, Ella, had avoided injury while sledding....She managed get a very bad ankle sprain).   The kids all had a great time playing in the snow and just playing together, in general.  My cousin Shawnda and her 3 kids were able to join us for some sled riding at the park too.  It was nice to see them again too. 

 We also had a little early Christmas celebration with my Mom, Dad, brother, grandma and my sister's family.   We all exchanged Christmas presents this weekend since we won't see each other again until some time after Christmas.  Hopefully, it will be too long until our next family get together.  This one was fun but way too short. 

Brody felt good for most of the weekend.  He did have a few brief instances of significant belly pains, nausea, headache, and leg cramps.  Fortunately, none of the episodes lasted for very long.  His cousins and brothers were also very good about being gentle with him and being very quiet in the morning so he could sleep and get some extra needed rest.  They also helped pull Brody back up the sledding hill in his sled several times too.   Brody did manage to walk all the way up the sledding hill once by himself though.