Christmas break

Christmas was pretty special. Anna, TJ and I were all home. We slept here on Christmas eve, and TJ did manage to fall asleep at a reasonable hour, so we were able to put his presents out and then talk about how Santa came by... He's still a little young to understand the whole thing, but he's pretty good at saying Merry Christmas and Santa Claus. He was real excited with opening up presents. He would rip into something, and then if it was clothes, the clothes were quickly discarded as he searched for something more fun. The day was a little emotional. It felt great to have everyone home but it felt a little quieter than Christmas normally does. Plus, I think we missed Tino a little extra as he would normally be in the middle of everything.

Bianca had been here for almost two weeks and she left on Friday night. She was a big help with Anna and TJ, as well as keeping the house under control. When she left Niko (her brother) and Lele (their Aunt/TJ's godmother) came to town. They'll be around through New Years and then head back home.

We had Niko, Lele, Anna's parents, my parents, my sister and my grandmother over on Saturday. Although, we celebrated on Christmas day with just us (and Bianca), Saturday was much more of the celebration. It felt pretty good to have a busy house again with lots of people and lots of food! Anna was able to hang out for most of the day, but did sneak away a couple of times to rest and take a little nap. We went a little light on presents this year, mostly because Anna didn't have time to get out and shop. Overall though, TJ was the undisputed winner as we have tons of new toys to go with his tons of his existing toys.

She heads back over to see the doctor tomorrow for a check-up and we suspect she'll probably be ready for another round of platelets. On Tuesday, she has another spinal tap scheduled as part of the chemo treatment plan. She'll have one of these a week for the next six weeks or so. It's definitely one of the more uncomfortable procedures as the whole thing takes a while, then she has to lay down for several more hours... and then that night and the next day, the spot where the perform the procedure is pretty sore.