Time keeps on ticking ticking....

So my last post pointed out that October went exceptionally fast....well November was pretty much the same. In fact, I blinked and it was gone. Life is busy and seems even busier when routine is out of whack, as was our November. The P's were involved in a fall soccer tourney in KC the first weekend in November. It was my first time taking on a full weekend of tournament action by myself, ok without Kris, because my mom, the trooper she is, was on hand to help me. Kris was here, working and then, playing in the annual Battle of the Badges tournament. He was able to see one game out of three so there is that to be thankful for at least. I do have to say it went pretty well. I managed to get us there safely and back and it was a great experience for all of us. Well mostly. The Sunday of the tourney was the football game. It was the first year the girls and I have missed watching Topeka Fire take on Topeka Police. I was a little bummed but sometimes we must divide and conquer and I was certainly not going to let the girls down. As we began our decent to KC, I got a text from Kris saying he had gotten hurt in the warm up. Something about his ankle. I asked if he was going to be ok. His response was, "yeah I'm going to watch a little and then go to see a doctor." So I drove east and said a silent prayer hoping a small sprain or something easy. No, that was not the case. Here we are 4 weeks out and Kris just got his cast off today. He is in a walking boot for a few more weeks, and off duty maybe until February or March. Those achilles are pretty tough tendons, but can they ever snap? And his surely did. Thankfully he has a great surgeon and is doing amazingly well. But it has been an adjustment for all of us. He literally went from being home maybe 2-3 days a week, and not usually in a 24 hour consecutive period, to being home, all of the time. His ability to work his other jobs lost at the moment. And his thoughts that Sunday afternoon when he felt it snap, was oh crap how can I take care of our family? God does keep us going, and the relief is on its way. I have been praying hard about making sure we are able to take care of our finances and still give those we give gifts to a decent Christmas. Mainly our girls, though they are the easiest ones to please. But the stress is still there. This has been a reminder Christmas, of what life and this holiday are truly about. And its seriously opened my eyes to so many things that I've let roll past me. I am actually a little disgusted by how material we have all become. I used to love seeing the holiday commericals, but now all I see is save 40% here, 80% off door busters and enjoy the season, blah, blah, blah. I feel kind of like Cindy Lou Who off the Grinch (the newer movie). Its all ridiculous. In fact, I was very much not in the holiday spirit until just a day or so ago. Thankfully, the girls excitement over the simplest things this year has really helped me with this. But at the same time, I am saddened by how I see the people in my life acting and reacting to this time of year. Then again, I try to remind myself of what we tell the girls. "You can't control how others act, only how you react." In all of this, I have had to take a step back here and there and remind Kris and I that this is temporary. There is a fix, he will get back on his feet and so will we. This isn't a death sentence or an illness with years and years of suffering attached. It is nothing compared to what another fire family we know is going through. Its a bump in the road, we pick ourselves up, and keep on going. And that my friends is the theme for this season. Keep on going, but don't forget to take in the beauty around us along the way.