Cardiology Christmas party

 This year we were invited to a Christmas Party put on by the Cardiology staff at Shands.   It was a neat time to see and visit with Brandon's doctors away from the usual medical setting, and to meet with other families who have children with congenital heart defects.  The neatest though was getting to meet this family from Puerto Rico who moved up here seven months ago to have their baby that was born with HLHS.  So, there's not too many people that have children with the same exact heart defect as him, and I really enjoyed talking to the lady, and she had so many questions, just wondering what it's like after having gone through all three surgeries.  They were given no hope in Puerto Rico and told there baby would die shortly after birth, so they looked into coming to the States, and that's when they got set up with Dr. Bliewies at Shands, who is Brandon's surgeon.  After one meeting with him they moved up here and delivered at Shands, and there little guy has had two of the three surgeries already.  He's really doing amazing.  He's almost seven months old and weighs 20lbs. already, which is a big deal for heart babies.  The above pictures was Adrian and Patrick helping Hannah-Lynn look like a snowman, which was one of the activities they had for the kids.

 The baby that has HLHS

 These two were quite intrigued by the pictures, and Jackson managed to put those antlers on!

 More snowman (or snowlady) modifications!

 Dr. Bliewies with two of his patients!

 One person from each family was dressed up like a snowman, and it was quite comical to watch!

 So, right before the party was over they had one of the DR's come in dressed as Santa. Of course our children know Santa is not real, and so we explained who it was under the mask and suit and they got their picture taken.  The guy under the suit is actually Dr. Fricker  and he is such a sweet dr.  We have enjoyed having him watch over Brandon's care, and he loves our family too.

 Brandon won this ginger bread house by pinning the hat on the snowman the closest, while blindfolded.  He was SO happy, because he had been telling me how he wanted to do one of the ginger bread houses this year, so he was so delighted when he opened the prize and saw what it was.