Merry Christmas Eve/Michael Health Update

Merry Christmas Eve! Michael finished his Minecraft Lego advent calendar today. He really enjoyed discovering each new item as the month progressed.

Here is the finished display:

A little over three weeks ago, Michael had a manometry study to test the motility of his esophagus, in an ongoing effort to discover why he has trouble swallowing food. The results of the test were apparently normal, but they did make a note that there was “absence of contraction in the skeletal portion of the esophagus.”

Based on this finding, they have referred him to be assessed for possible neuromuscular disorders. Unfortunately, the first available appointment with that department isn’t until September 2026.

It is confusing to me why this is not considered a GI issue, but we are seeing the GI doc in January so hopefully can get a better explanation then. From some reading I have done, it may also explain his chronic constipation issues.

Thankfully, he is able to swallow as long as he has enough liquid to help get it down, so he is okay for now.

Brick Fest

Recently I had the opportunity to attend Brick Fest, which is an event designed for Lego fans of all ages. I went with my friend Jessyca, and we had a great time!

There were a ton of builds to see, including some very large scale ones, and there were also many interactive areas. We did quite a few of them:

  • Meet N Greet with two of the stars from Lego Masters
  • Derby, where you build a car on a provided base and then it is raced against other cars down a short track
  • Coloring with Lego markers and Lego gel pens on coloring sheets they provided
  • Building a section of a mosaic based on a template you were given
  • Playing in a brick pit (Jessyca did this – I don’t have a picture)
  • Jessyca had a VIP ticket, so she got to do a custom build which was a little robot and get an event pin and sticker. She was able to get doubles of those to share with me.

The Meet N Greet was with Manny and Patrick from the show Lego Masters. I haven’t seen the show, but Jessyca is a huge fan and was really excited to meet Manny especially. She took a picture of me with them:

Here are some of the builds we saw:

Here is the car I built and the derby track:

Here’s my coloring page and the other swag I got:

And here is the mosaic tile I built along with a picture of the mosaic in progress:

There were other areas where you could build with different types of bricks, but we didn’t do all of them. We spent about 3 hours there, which we were happy with.

If you are interested in attending Brick Fest, check out their website for other locations and dates.

Ice Cream Dream (Repeat)

I have recently made a couple of new friends at the church I attend now, and both of them enjoy doing puzzles. My friend Jessyca came over to do a puzzle and enjoyed it so much she came back two more times so we could finish it together!

I let her choose the puzzle, and she picked Ice Cream Dream by Lego because she likes Legos. It’s a 1000-piece puzzle that I got as a birthday gift a couple of years ago, and I had done it in January of 2023.

We took the time to sort by color and did each ice cream tub as a mini puzzle before putting them together and filling in the border and in-between pieces. You can see our progress in the three sessions in the photos below.

I had such a good time puzzling with a friend. And this weekend, I’m going to Brick Fest with her to see the actual thing!

Ice Cream Dream

The first puzzle I completed in 2023 was Ice Cream Dream by LEGO. It’s a 1000 piece puzzle depicting different color LEGOs as tubs of ice cream. I got this as a birthday gift from my friend Renee.

I actually started it in December 2022. I thought it would be super fast and easy, but each of the sections was like a mini single color puzzle and they took a little longer than I thought they would. It was very satisfying to get each color put together.

Here’s my progress as of December 31, 2022:

And here’s the finished puzzle:

This was a fun, colorful way to start the New Year!