Celebrating Christmas and Preparing for Round 4

We had a great Christmas. Jennifer's parents and brother celebrated with us and spent gobs of time playing with Carson and Francesca.

Just as expected, when it came to presents, Carson and Francesca made out like a bandits...as they should. Santa brought a Secret Service play set for Carson, complete with an Air Force One and a presidential limousine. It took us a while to figure out the puzzle of Chinese packaging, but we were finally able to liberate the limo so it could be used as a jump obstacle for the monster trucks.

Santa didn't have to bring the monster trucks. Those came with the boy.

Francesca made out with a couple of nice coats, among other things. Jennifer got a new coat. Even I got a new coat. Hmmm...do you detect a trend here? Although we suffered through last year, it seems as if none of us can find our coats after moving back from Florida. Now we are a step closer to acclimating in our "new" environment.

In medical news, Carson is doing well, although the first few nights after coming home from the hospital were rough. Shortly after getting home he developed sores in his mouth and throat - a side effect from the chemo. A runny nose exacerbated the problem at night making for some not-so-fun nights...and tired parents. However, now we are on an antiseptic mouthwash and antibiotics and things have improved considerably.

Yesterday we made our way to the clinic for our follow-up visit and all was well. Our next appointment is Monday, and if things are a "go" we'll head to the hospital to begin our fourth and final round of HDMTX.

We are forever grateful for the many cards, gifts, food, comments, and most of all, prayers. I can't begin to express how much they mean or how much they help. Suffice to say I don't think we'd get by without them. Thank you.

Paul.