Stitches for Christmas!

As usually happens at our house, our trip to cut down our Christmas tree was more eventful than we had planned. We drove up the switchbacks and were very grateful that the roads were dry and we really had our pick of any tree we wanted because there wasn't snow that prohibited us from going very far in.

Lizzie & I stayed in the van while James and the rest of the kids went scouting for the perfect tree. They found a great one, just perfect for our house, and cut it down. Most of the kids headed back down the mountain, but the twins stayed to help James carry the tools back down the mountain.

Micah & Jamey had fun sliding on the ice and Micah had a pretty great fall -- I bet he has a huge, black bruise on his bum now.

Here is our beautiful tree, just right for the Whiting living room!
On the way down the hill, as James was carrying the tree on his head, Ian was carrying the chain saw & case down the hill, and Ethan was carrying the large red saw. He started out carrying it correctly, but when he was almost to the bottom of the mountain, he slipped on some ice and somehow ended up grabbing to sharp part of the saw with the palm of his hand. We're still not sure exactly how this happened because none of us saw it and Ethan doesn't even seem to know how the sharp end got into the palm of his hand. He got a pretty long and deep cut, though.

So he got to go on a trip to the ER on the day after Thanksgiving. He was very scared and was crying more out of fear from the stitches than from the pain from the cut. I bandaged him up with the 1st aid kit we keep in our van (thank goodness for that!) so that he wasn't bleeding, but his fingers were purple by the time he go to the ER so I guess I had it a bit too tight... I am happy to say, though, that he definitely does not have platelet dysfunction -- his blood clotted very well.


He is very proud of his injury now that it is all stitched up (7 stitches!) and healing well. He hasn't been to the ER since he was about 4 years old and he decided to go down Grandma Call's backyard slide with a broom handle in his mouth (when he landed the broom handle carved up the roof of his mouth). He and Ian have been comparing glory stories now. Ian still holds the award, though, of the most stitches in our family (unless you count my c-section staples!).