Hunsaker Happy Holiday Happenings

Christmas Morning

We treasure the time we were able to spend together as a family this Christmas. Thanks to the Ures and the Millers for the long drives. Thanks to the strong sons and sons-in-law for all the snow shoveling. Thanks to the wonderful parents of our grandchildren, who are all great examples as well as great teachers. Thanks to sons who moved out of rooms and who shared bathrooms. Thanks to everybody for getting along so well with 13 people in five bedrooms, using 3 bathrooms. You are all well loved!

Just a few shots of the usual Christmas morning j0y. . .

Much thanks to the Hayes family for facilitating such a large family gathering. It means so mucn to get everyone together.

Christmas Eve with the Eggertsens at the Stott Home

While chatting a few days before Christmas, Mary and Susie thought it would be grand to get their families together on Christmas Eve for a soup supper and sing along. We enjoyed Clam Chowder, Minestrone, salad, and various crackers with cheese balls, etc. Dinner was followed by reenacting the nativity (following blog) and then, as is tradition in the Stott home, a rendition of Sleigh Ride, with the accompanying sleigh bells (a gift from the Eggertsens in years past), clip clop glasses with wooden Spoon, (Tom)belt/whip, (Katie) and horse whinney, Mimi.



















Following Sleigh Ride Mimi and Liz played Santa Clause is Coming to Town, which Susie remembered Martha and Mimi playing in years gone by. . .





Since the Stotts are the lucky recipients of a coveted copy of Eggertsen Musical favorites, we proceded with a general sing along including "The Spirit of Christmas", "Christmas Island", "White Christmas", "Silver Bells", There's a Christmas Tree in Heaven", etc., all with various accompanists. I must say it was grand! Hyms singing followed, as well as some songs played with chimes. It was a most memorable evening.

Poor Steve, who was quite sick, slipped out of his self imposed exile to view some of the proceedings from the stairs.

The Nativity

And she (Bethany) brought forth her first born son, (Jane's bandaged bunny) and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn. . .

And there were in the same country, shepherds (Jan) abiding in the field keeping watch over their flock (Rebekah, Nate, Mimi) by night. . .

And lo, the angel of the Lord (Jane) came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shown round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the City of David, a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. . . Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, (Marc) and the babe lying in the manger.

Alive and kicking

An opportunity to participate in an evening of recruiting at BYU
turned into a blessing in disguise as I was able to see my mother
today for the first time since her stroke.

While she couldn't quite touch her toes or sing and dance as she is
inclined to do, as you can see from the picture below she is back at
her cheerleading routine. Mind you, that's her leg that was described as "noodley" by Dad as she was being rushed to the hospital half paralyzed a week and a half ago. I've never said this and sincerely meant it until now, but it's truly a Christmas miracle.

As documented by this pitcure all the encouraging news is in fact
true: she's experienced a remarkable recovery. And don't be fooled by her being in bed--when I arrived this evening she was up and at 'em standing, sitting, doing everything but jumping jacks. But it's not over, occupational and physical therapy are still on the path to 100%.

She is a very happy girl with a fresh perspective on life that
inspires me. And I don't believe I've ever seen my parents so relaxed, nor felt their love so obviously for one another.

I love you mom.

The Brides' Shower

We enjoyed a festive bridal shower for Emily and Abbie where even the weather co-operated with a dusting of snow! The Hunsaker home was warm and welcoming with the glow of the Christmas tree emanating from the front window.
The scene was even more inviting on the inside, where the gifts under the tree were Henrietta's Turkey Casserole with festive homemade Cranberry sauce, orange rolls, and Kathryn's colorful salad with grapefruit, avocado, bananas, pomegranate, raspberries, bowtie pasta, etc. etc. The drinks were ice water or Cranberry Wassail.

A plethora of desserts awaited us, including a delicious berry covered cheese cake, eclairs, and Katie's Christmas collection of Fudge, English Toffee, and Christmas Wreaths made from corn flakes and marshmallows with red hot berries. Mixed nuts were found in random serving dishes.

We enjoyed meeting Abbie's in-laws: Jon's sisters-in-law, Becky and Jill, his mother, Pat, and his only sister, Heidi.

One of the lovely brides, Emily, will enjoy a new family including Pat, Brad's mother, with her lovely granddaughter, who was a great helper when it came time for opening gifts.

Darling Bella will be another of Emily's nieces.

The second lovely bride, Abbie, opens her group gift, which was fortuitously delivered just that morning! It included a place setting of china in the Mikasa Venetian Lace pattern, along with a serving platter and serving dish. Abbie also received a set of cookware. Emily received a KitchenAid mixer, an appliance she has a good deal of experience using, for her group gift.

The highlight of the evening was the unveiling of the beautiful quilts; Abbie's made by Aunt Mary Eggertsen and Emily's made by cousin Katie. Pictured are Abbie, Katie holding Sammy (Amy's daughter), Emily and Laura.

Much thanks to our unsurpassed hostess, Carolyn, and to all who sent love and group gift contributions ~ who wished they could have been there ~ and to those who were able to come. It was a lovely, memorable evening.

December 7th:

Thanks Linda for the update on the 6th. Today mom again had two sessions this morning and from what I hear it was positive. These first few weeks I guess are most pertinent as it is ideal for the patient to get as much done during this time to help the body know how it needs to heal. I don't know all the medical specifics but that's what they say, so it's good she's pushing forward through this time. After her morning sessions she was pretty exhausted but I hear they've got a WHOLE day scheduled for Monday (tomorrow) so she's working like an ox. Thanks for all your love and support, phone calls and visits.

Every one have fun at the shower and give the girls our love from the Moench's! I'm sorry I couldn't be there.

Emailing Martha

Intermountain Medical Center has a great web site that allows you to email patients.   If you want to email Martha just go to IHC's website (I put in IHC.com and it directed me to the web site) and click Intermountain Medical Center hospital, then "email patient."  I went to visit her yesterday and Wow!  What a difference a day makes.  She's working so hard at full recovery.  No more IV. Her speech therapist brought her a few puzzles and taught her how to play Sudoku.  She really liked that.  Anyway, these last few days in the hospital, I do think those who'd like to are safe to email your encouragement.   The plan is to come home Tuesday.

History of stroke/aneurysm in the Hatch Family

We have spoken with Barbara, Judi, Diane and Joyce concerning the tendency to stroke/cerebral aneurysm in the Hatch family. The report so far is Connie (a stroke); Barbara (1 cerebral aneurysm,1 stroke); Martha (1 stroke); Henrietta (ruptured cerebral aneurysm); Uncle Stuart (2 strokes). Please make any corrections to this information in comments.
Thanks to Martha for so dramatically increasing the interest in the family blog!
Thank you to Carolyn. Your note on spelling has been attended to in this blog entry.
After some discussion at the Young family Bridal Shower (12/8), this entry has been edited for accuracy. sys

Phonecall from Martha! Flower advice & Thanksgiving

It's a good thing I didn't say, "Nice prank, you really sound like her" and hang up my phone this afternoon like the Congresswoman from Florida did, twice, when Barack Obama called her. It was really Martha! I was so excited! I've been trying to be so patient since Monday and give her peace & quiet to fascilitate her healing process, while at the same time checking the blog and wishing I had Mark's cell phone number rather than Martha's. I didn't really feel like calling hers and saying, "Hey! Whatcha up to these days?" Thanks! Adri for these updates you've written. I didn't know they were here 'til Diane, my BYU roommate, emailed me today. There must be a trick to getting notified of new posts somewhere. But hey, I just figured out how to post my own posts instead of always posting anonomously because I couldn't remember my sign-in.

Martha sounded great. Her efforts and attitude are nothing short of heroic. Leave it to Martha to be a trend-setter. She said they keep telling her, "We've never had anyone do as well as you're doing having had a full stroke." She said they took her out walking in the parking lot today and didn't make it easy, taking her through a garden and purposely making her manouver away from things that could have tripped her right leg.

She did mention to pass the word to the family that she thinks she has flowers from every law firm in the city and to save our money for Christmas rather than send her flowers if we feel so inclined. She has quite a few really large boquets of roses. She said she thinks she's going home next week. Tuesday? or Wednesday?

I wish I had some Thanksgiving pictures to share from our trip to St. George. Sharon & Hugh invited us down and we had a great time. Sharon helped Katie learn to write a few letters and read books with her while Ian and Ken went fishing, catching 2 fish. Sharon, Stefanie and I even managed to slip out and see the new Nichole Kidman movie Australia, which we LOVED. What fun to see a great movie, with 2 people who also loved it, while getting a break from the kids. Sharon said Rob & Laura are in St. George this weekend working a fair. Never a dull moment at the Yancey's.

Here's praying Martha's health continues to improve. We all sure have a lot to be thankful for.

Another update on visiting Martha!

Martha December 5th:

Mom has been successfully moved to the rehab unit/room and is needing all her strength for physical therapy and speech therapy. She is now able to receive flowers and they can be sent to:

Intermountain Medical Center
Martha Moench, Room 1218
5121 South Cottonwood Street
Murray, UT 84157

VISITING is restricted, please read this whole paragraph if you would like to visit. She is able to receive visitors now, HOWEVER it is limited to immediate family, so brothers and sisters may visit, but NO children. If you have been sick or have had sick family members in the last week, it is advised that you not visit until you are well, because if my mom gets sick that will prolong her recovery. ALSO, the nurses will not admit you unless you've scheduled a time with my dad. He will then notify the nurses of your visiting time. This is a necessary precaution as they need to space out the visitors and pace her so she is not expending too much energy outside of her recovery. You can reach my dad on his cell phone to schedule a time to come see mom but please keep your visits short, ideally to less than an half-hour. Thanks for understanding the circumstances. If you don't know how to contact my dad, I can be reached at 801.556.6483 or 208.354.0424 and can give you his information. 

I love you all and will keep updating as I get more information.

Update on Martha

Thank you to everyone who has been so supportive during this time of our family, and during the challenges my mom faces. For those of you who don't know, she suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and stroke on the first of December. She's recovering at Intermountain Health in the Neuro ICU and will hopefully be moved to a physical therapy room within the next few days. We have been greatly blessed by your prayers and well wishes and I just wanted to provide a recap of what has gone on this week and will try to update daily with her progress.

December 1st: While attending pilates mom realized something was wrong and told them to call the paramedics while she got a hold of Pat and my Dad. She then suffered a hemorrhagic stroke that morning. She remains in intensive care. She has been administered a drug called Factor 7 (I think) to aid in clotting the blood and stop the hemmorrhage. At this point, they are waiting to see how she reacts to the drug. The stroke afflicted her right side, and there had been a slight improvement since that morning.

Many of you have asked about flowers. The hospital does not allow flowers in the intensive care unit. Once she moves from there and is able to have flowers, I will let everyone know.

December 2nd: Mom had a good night, and there were no signs of further digression. She was scheduled for an MRI later in the day and was starting to get movement in her hand and fingers on the right side. 

The results of the MRI showed a very slight expansion in the brain as a result of bleeding from when she was admitted to the hospital yesterday. However, they believe that may have been during the time when the drug to stop the bleeding was taking effect. She is working with a speech and physical therapist. She is still in intensive care. If all goes well, she may move from there Thursday.

December 3rd: Last night (2nd) she had head pain so severe that she was administered morphine. Today, she was scheduled for a CT scan and a cerebral angiogram. The angiogram will determine with certainty whether or not any bleeding is still occurring. She is responsive and giving a good strong squeeze with her right hand, however feeling hasn't returned to the right side yet. 

December 4th: The cerebral angiogram she had yesterday indicated no further bleeding occurring in her brain. Doctors indicated her stroke was a direct result of high blood pressure. She had a very good night last night, and her coordination and speech are much improved! Perhaps the most positive update is that she is experiencing significant tingling in the right side of her body. She has been cleared to move from intensive care into a rehabilitation unit. Dad will let us know when that occurs. 

They are currently restricting visitors however we want to thank you all for your prayers, support and love at this time. It's amazing how strong and optimistic she is through these challenges and is an inspiration as she work to heal her body. Of you have questions, please direct them to the blog or to me and I'll try my best to answer them. I know my dad is updating Kath as well so she'd be a good person to talk to additionally. 

Jane's 3rd Birthday

Yes! I finally accepted Jen's invitation to post and I think this is the second post I have ever made on a blog. I have these great pictures that Uncle Hugh took from Jane's third birthday last week. As some of you may remember, she was born on Thanksgiving day, and this year her birthday was on Monday the 24th. Without further ado, here are the pictures:


Beth, Josh, Jane, Rebekah
The Birthday cake- Jane requested a bunny cake.
Sisters. When Sharon said we both look like my Mom Ang said, "Yeah, Susie hotdog and Susie hamburger." I only put that because (1) it is funny and (2) this time last year I was the hamburger and Ang was the hotdog.

Two of Jane's presents: an apron and a magic wand. She LOVES this wand. We just found it today after it had been lost since the night of the party. It was in a cupboard in the buffet that we never open. I have no idea who put it there. Jane accuses Josh, but she always blames him for doing anything mischievous (like turning her alarm clock on so it blasted through the house at midnight the night we got back after they had stayed at our house for a few days- surprisingly she stayed asleep through the whole thing, but thought he probably did it when we told her about it the next day).
This last picture is Jane displaying her birthday banner, which is a tradition brought from Jan's family.

Thanksgiving

Mike and Heather came down for Thanksgiving dinner (well, the day after Thanksgiving since Ryan was working a 24 hour shift on Thanksgiving). It's nice to have them only an hour away - and willing to be the ones to come see us since we've got a lot more baggage!

Heather (or Heaber, as Cash calls her) even brought a cute craft to do with Cash. Fun fun.


I even had flowers that my mom sent for my birthday that still survived to make a lovely little centerpiece!
It really was a pretty boquet my mom sent, and it was so fun of Julie to send a box of birthday decorations. I realized that Cash is the one that loves a party, so I should celebrate for his sake, and then turned up the box of decoration.

Stake Christmas Fireside

I know this is a busy time of year so only mention this if someone has a slow Sunday night and doesn't want to spend it recuperating at home (which I can't imagine)! Every year our stake does a great Christmas fireside with about 10 musical numbers and a speaker after the first five. Our Stake Music Leader has delightfully eclectic taste so we always have an interesting blend. (On the years when she does Callypso Noel we have a base guitar along with the usual percussion instruments.) Steve has been accompanying for several years, but this year there is a challenging finale where the choir is accompanied by a duet that will be played by Steve and Nate. Jon was roped into playing bongo drums for "Mary Did you Know?", and last night Nate was assigned the claves for the same number. The fireside is December 14 at 7:00 p.m. if anyone is interested. It will be held in our ward building, the "Lighthouse Church" (because there's a lighthouse on top); address 3900 S. 4000 West.
Merry Christmas!