Xmas 2008

Well...this past week was Xmas, 2008. Obviously, first and foremost, I am very happy that both Jill and I made it to this holiday. Xmas is very important to Jill. Both kids made it home without any problems. Brett & Arielle came home the Saturday before Xmas and stayed for a week. Julie came home on Xmas eve since she had to work that day.

We did our usual Xmas eve tradition - this year we had meatballs & weiners in sauce, cucumber sandwiches, shrimp, veggies & dip, ham rollups, cheese, and weiners in crescent rolls. Snacking and opening presents went well. Since we were quite up to it (or we were just too lazy!!), Brett and Arielle put up the tree. And...they were kind enough to take it down before they left - so that Jill and I wouldn't need to worry about handling the task.

Xmas day was the usual feast of too much food - but, it was all very good. The morning started off a little out of kilter. We had ordered and thought we got a fresh turkey. Well...Jill discovered Xmas morning that it was still partially frozen - which it certainly wasn't supposed to be. Luckily, I was able to find directions online to thaw the turkey in our microwave - and even more luckily, the new microwave was big enough to fit it. As it turned out, the Master Chef setting on the oven also used the convection function and it cooked the turkey in pretty decent time - which meant that we had dinner about when we originally expected. The meal turned out very well - turkey, dressing, double-baked potatoes, baked beans, corn souffle, rolls, cranberry salad.

All in all, it turned out to be a very nice holiday. Nice visit with the kids. Good food. Plenty of time just sitting around being lazy.

hurray for today

Went for my visit with Dr Einhorn today. Had Xrays. The good news is that he said my cancer continues to be stable. No treatment is needed at this time. That's 17 months in remission. I will go back to see him in March - after our Feb cruise. He is planning on a CT scan next visit since I haven't had one is quite a while. The CT scan will give him a little more detailed picture than the Xray. Also, he gave me an Rx to try for the neuropathy in my feet. He said to try it for a week - if it doesn't help after one week, he doesn't think it will. So...we'll see how that works. It sure would be nice to reduce the nagging pain in my feet. Other than that, same old same old - and that's good news!

Thanksgiving

Well...the past week was Thanksgiving. As usual, we went to Joliet and spent several days with Jill's family. Brett and Arielle flew in from Philly on Wednesday AM and Julie drove in from St Louis Wednesday night. The extended family at Joy's for Thanksgiving dinner included Joy (Jill's sister), Mark, Abby, Andrew, Jill's mom, Bob (Jill's brother), Patti, Sam, Jake, Mike (Jill's nephew) and Jen, Matt (Jill's nephew) and Liz, and I hope I'm not forgetting anyone. We enjoyed the usual fabulous food (too much as usual) and loads of good conversation and good times. Of course, the TV was tuned to football. The kids mostly headed downstairs to play air hockey and Wii.


Of course, while we were in Joliet, we visited favorite restaurants. What would a visit to Joliet be without a stop at Portillo's, Merichka's and Traverso's? Obviously, most of us ate totally too much food. But, for us, that is what Thanksgiving is all about - family, fun, food and lots of laughs.