Christmas Presents!

So above we have the famous "Skookie" pans! A gift from my grandpa and grandma. Alex and I tried them out for our Christmas Eve meal with goodies and I added candy cane to the chocolate chip cookie recipe for good peppermint flavor! mm MMMM!
And this is the little red fire truck from Aunt Nat to our little guy. I'm about 31 weeks ripe here. :-)
And these cute items are from the Aunt factor as well! They do a good job! Our little one, (and thus his parents,) were on the receiving end of many generous gifts this year! Included were a new car seat with stroller from my parents, the baby bassinet passed down in my family, (my grandpa slept in it!) and numerous fun books and cute and studly clothes...fun stuff!

A White Christmas!

My first realy white christmas! How fun! Despite me having to work, it is so amazing to actually see snow flakes falling on Christmas Day. At the moment I am in Eureka, though I was lucky enough to spend the morning at home and enjoy the white stuff. Even the drive was fun! (Thanks to my trusty green machine!)
And, thank goodness, the health care climate today has been peaceful as well...giving me some free time. Out little boy in my tummy is a mover! Practicing his powerful punches as I write this. And he feels like he is getting bigger by the second. Alex does say that he can notice a day by day difference in my size...pretty amazing.
It's so nice to think of next year when we'll have a little person staring at our Christmas tree, scooting around on our floor, and perhaps raising havoc? Sounds fun!

Rogue River, OR. Thanksgiving Weekend

Finally, pictures from our mini Honeymoon...or babymoon? to Paradise Lodge on the Rogue River. The Lodge is in a remote location that you can only hike too, or boat or jetboat too. We choose the later and it was a blast! Alex showed off his mad skills....with only a few bumps in the road...give him a beer or two and he'll tell you all about it! The picture above is from Zeike's Peak above the Lodge, just a little jaunt STRAIGHT UP!!! And I'm glad to say Katie and Fulton Jr. made it up like champs, though Katie was blowing some wind a bit more than usual! Over all a beautiful weekend with great weather. The Lodge actually reminded us a lot of our property which made it nice to come home as well...:-)

Back to the land of blue

Yep, back to work. "Blue" meaning the OR. Not something beautiful like the blue ocean, blue sky, or the blue of someones eyes. Everything blue in the operating room is sterile, and assisting I am too. I guess it is a calming color for me. It means everything is prepped, ready to go, and puts an action such cutting a person's body in a very controlled environment, or about as controlled as it can be. I think that is why I like it so much. The more I am in surgery, the more I know and the more controlled it is. Never routine, at least not yet, except maybe the very straightforward cases. My boss and teacher in all of this told me early on that surgery is very deliberate. Of course at the time I didn't know what the hell he was talking about because it was so new. But now I see what he means. If you are deliberate, but speedy, you are a great surgeon. And being deliberate takes thousands and thousands of hours in the operating room.
I am trying to be deliberate, but doubt it will come some time soon. I actually doubt you can even "Try" to do such a thing. I think it just happens..
So my first day out of the blue Rogue River, (pictures to come later!) and into the blue of my work place was pretty good. Actually included a half day of office which always breaks things up, as you can look into the blue, or brown, or green of your patient's and new aquaintance's eyes and gain perspective....