Tyson Hugh Hooper

Tyson Hugh Hooper
Our son, Tyson Hugh Hooper, was born with coarctation of the aorta, hypoplastic arch, and a transitional avsd. His first open heart surgery reconstructed his aorta and was on day 9 of life. His second open heart repair was not anticipated to be needed until two or three years of age. Ty had other plans. We spent the vast majority of his first 3 months of life at Vanderbilt as he went into heart failure and was diagnosed with pulmonary hypertension. As a result, the medical team concluded that he needed the repair much sooner than usually recommended, and at just shy of 3 months old Ty underwent his second life saving open heart surgery. God has already worked so many miracles in Ty's life and the life of our family and we know he is using our story. Because of this, we are grateful for Ty's special heart and feel beyond blessed that God chose us to travel this road. We ask for prayers as Ty continues to heal. We are praying for a full recovery and life without restrictions for Ty. We are praying for God to use our family and Ty for His glory.

Thank you to each and every person who supports us through prayer, giving, or just by loving on our family! We are humbled and blessed by all of the ways the Lord is providing for us and know that he is using Ty and his story to do great things!

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Christmas Eve...

is the BIG day!

In my family most of the "big" Christmas action actually occurs on Christmas Eve. It hasn't always been this way, but as our family and grown and changed it has become a tradition that fits this current chapter in our lives. So I thought I would share some of the goings on of the day with you... with lots of pictures!

First, a little introduction. Mom and Dad took in a dog named Toby...

This 2 1/2 year old dog that is already house trained and VERY well behaved is now a resident at my parents house. His previous owner has a new baby and decided it was time for the dog to go! He is especially partial to my mom and she to him... Tuffy (their Yorkie, is not so thrilled)!

So Christmas Eve started pretty early this morning as we got ready for Dad's side of the family to join us for our annual Christmas Eve brunch! The spread included quiche, scrambled eggs, ham, bacon, sausage, gravy, biscuits, pancakes, hot fruit, cold fruit, doughnuts, and I could keep going... so the cooking started pretty early!

Bentlee got in on the action... she placed all the biscuits on the pan and cracked all the eggs!

I made tomato-basil quiche... it was a new recipe and turned out great! I'll share it on Tasty Tuesday some time! Mom did LOTS, I can't even list it all... she's amazing!

And Dad fried most of the fried apple pies that mom made so I wouldn't get splattered! :-)


This is Bentlee and Elizabeth (my cousin's little girl) toasting before breakfast! They have a good time together even though they only see each other at Thanksgiving and Christmas!
After brunch we always do a Chinese auction (where each person brings a gift and everyone draws a number and then you can open or steal gifts up to three times, etc). It's always SO much fun, SO many laughs, and it's great on every one's budget! We used to gift everyone, then we drew names, but we landed on this years ago and it stuck! It's a real winner in our family! After many steals and some strategizing with my sister-in-law, I walked away with a beautiful pair of candle sticks!
After everyone left, Bentlee stayed with us while Ken and Sarah went to take care of some official Santa business. B fell asleep and had her nap (that she takes daily for about 2 hours - how nice is that!!).

She is so sweet! She sleeps as hard as a rock! We played music, cleaned up, and Toby even jumped on her a couple of times and she never even stirred!
When she got up she was rip roarin' ready to play! Here we are being silly~

And then Christmas Eve night we have our "family" Christmas, just me, Mom, Dad, Ken, Sarah, and Bentlee! This year Sarah and Malcolm chose to stay home for Christmas. We watched Christmas Vacation, had dinner (Paninis and Chili - Mmm) and then opened gifts and played!


At the end of the night we concluded with another tradition we have adopted in our family. It is an Old World Christmas tradition of hanging a pickle on the Christmas tree (we have an ornament that is a pickle, not an actual pickle). Mom always hides it and then the first person to find it get's the "pickle prize" which is always an ornament. My brother got it this year... again! He's good at finding it!
Overall, so far, it has been a wonderful and blessed holiday!

5 comments:

Betsy said...

What a wonderful Christmas! I LOVED all your pictures! Meagan, I got your sweet gift today. You are so thoughtful. Thank you soooo much! I absolutely loved it! It will always be so special to me because I got it from one of my precious blogging friends!!! I hope you enjoy the rest of your holiday!! Lots of love to you! :)

Megan L Hutchings said...

What a fabulous day with fabulous people! Can I just say...I adore your family and especially your mom. Thank you for sharing your family traditions with us and thank you for allowing my family to be a part of your's!

I love you sweet friend!

Leigh Ann said...

That brunch sounds yummy! You look cute there by the stove. That Bentlee is just adorable. 2 hour naps every day? Seriously??? So glad you had a wonderful time with your family. MWAH!

Rachel Wheat said...

So glad you had a blessed and fun Christmas! That Bentlee is TOO CUTE!

ariel said...

Sounds like you had such a wonderful Christmas filled with awesome traditions! Its so great to see your family has kept them going so many years and is now sharing them with the little ones!