Perks

Although we would trade them in a heartbeat for a clean bill of health for Fionny, there are certain perks that can come with having a kid with cancer.  Such as meeting the President of the United States and the First Family. 

About a month ago, we received a phone call from Children's Hospital.  They said that Fionny had been nominated by some of the nurses to be an elf in the annual Christmas in Washington show at the National Building Museum.  The President and First Family would be in attendance along with other celebrities.  Did we want to do it?

Well, that was that was the easiest question of my life to answer (besides, of course, "Will you marry me?" back in 2006.).  Where do we sign?

The whole thing was very hush-hush due to security concerns.  We were told not to tell anyone about it.  This was SO hard for me, people!  Finally, last Saturday, an elf costume and 3 tickets arrived to our house via courier.  Three tickets, you say?  Yep, we decided against bringing The Hellion...er, Deaglan.  He has been especially nightmarish lately.  But that is fodder for another post.

Once yesterday afternoon arrived, we got The Kid all gussied up, cleaned ourselves up a bit too and headed out.

Thanks, Ashley O'Reilly, for lending me the dress -- gold for cancer awareness!

Once we arrived, only one parent was allowed in the Elf Holding area (yes, it was really called that), and Fionn wanted his Daddy to be with him.  So I was relegated to the cheap seats where I waited, pensive as all hell, for the show to start.  As a result, I missed this moment.  The moment where my son met the President. 

Conor said it was a super-quick meeting.  The elves presented the Obamas with a gift, had their picture made, and then the First Family was outta there.  We were specifically told that NO PICTURES of parents with the First Family would be allowed.  Conor wasn't even able to get very close to them but had to just watch from the sidelines.

The show itself was great.  It was hosted by Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.  There were performances by Darius Rucker (Hootie!), Rita Ora, and Christina Perry, among others.  There were a few famous folks in the audience too.  For example, I looked at the back of Newt Gringrich's head the whole time.  His wife's too.  Man, she has one coiffed 'do!  And I also saw some familiar-looking actor guy who had a part on House of Cards.  Oh, and Candy Crowley from CNN.

At the beginning of the show, they marched the elves out onto the stage where they huddled in a little cluster. Apparently, five minutes before the show started, Fionn started to cry and ask for his mommy and daddy (Conor had joined me in the audience by this time).  The Elf Handler did a good job of...well, handling him.  By the time Fionn was up on stage, his eyes were dry.  He did kind of hang out toward the back of the pack though as if he wasn't sure about the whole thing.  Conor and I tried to stand up a bit and wave to him without being completely uncouth.  And he saw us!  We saw him mouth, "Mama" and smile.  It was very cute.

Thankfully, the elves were only up there long enough to get introduced, and then they hustled them off the stage.  Fionn joined us for the rest of the performance.  During the rest of the hour-long show, he alternated between watching the show with little interest and lying across our laps, face down with his booty in the air.  That should make for good television.  Speaking of which, the show will be televised on Friday, December 19, at 8 pm on TNT.  We won't actually get to watch it because we will be partying down at my dear cousin's rehearsal dinner that night.  Someone tape it for us!!  Please!

After the show, we hit up the reception for about an hour.  The food was pretty good, but the highlight was really the Balloon Guy who made Fionn a bow and arrow out of balloons.  Very cool.  So cool in fact that I am pretty sure it made a bigger impact than the Commander-in-Chief. 

Obama definitely didn't get a smile that big.

It was a super-special night, and we were honored to be part of it.  I don't think Fionn realizes the importance of meeting the President now, but someday he will.  Until then, we will hold the memory for him.  It was truly amazing.

We are back at clinic today so Fionn can receive more chemo and also get his counts checked.  We are hoping that everything looks great so that we can feel 100% secure in our decision to attend Karen's wedding in Memphis this weekend.  Fionn is going to be the ring bearer!  Another exciting event!  Epic month for this kid of ours.  Until next time.