Blessed

We are so blessed and lucky.  This Christmas was perfect.  Ty and Gavin had the time of their lives and we had so much fun watching them.  We went to Lou's parent's house for Christmas eve, then drove to my parent's house on Christmas morning.  We were surrounded by family both days and we all shared a lot of much needed laughs. 

The first two pictures are my handsome boys all dressed up for the holidays. 

Despite his weakness on the left side, Ty has been in amazing spirits.  Must be all the joy and celebrating that Christmas brings :)  He has been so happy, and he looks sooo good.  It's not just me, everyone agrees.  The fact that he is happy and without pain or nausea helps me to feel confident that the MRI on Thursday will remain clean.  It simply has to.  I don't know what could be causing his setbacks, but I have to think that all of the heavy duty medicine we are pumping our poor little guy with on a daily basis can't help.  On Wednesday his fifth cycle of oral chemo will be complete and we will begin the sixth cycle which includes Cytoxin and Celebrex in place of the Etoposide/Accutane he is on right now.  Hopefully the switch in medication will help his strength to improve.  Maybe we can even take a week or two off before the next cycle to help him recover.

BTW - Ty picked out the most perfect Christmas tree this year.  Here it is on Christmas Eve, after Santa came for a visit.  So exciting!!

There were some great presents under the tree this Christmas, but you all know that the greatest gift of all was hearing Ty's voice and laughter fill the room.  We put out cookies and chocolate milk (because Ty thinks Max and Ruby were right - Santa probably prefers chocolate).  In the morning Ty was so excited to see the footprints from the fireplace, the crumbs left on the cookie plate, the stockings filled to the brim and, of course, the presents!!  He calls Christmas "chrismy" and he calls presents "pennies".  Ty, you are my best Chrismy Penny ever.   You, your daddy and your brother are my whole world.  Below are the boys with their favorites.  Ty got an old fashioned robot just like Max, and Gavin got a bunch of Toy Story toys, including Jessie.   



It's always a little sad when Christmas is officially over.  We saw my brother and family for brunch this morning before heading back home from Long Island and now we are watching Love Actually  before deleting all of the Christmas specials and Christmas movies from our DVR.  

Before signing off, I will leave you all with one of my favorite Christmas songs.  It tells the greatest story ever told in a beautiful way.  Fills me up with love :)  Goodnight and God Bless.