One to Go

It's been a fun and eventful holiday season. And as I've maintained, the busy holidays have made the chemo trudge zip by pretty quickly.

Maggie's holiday choir concert was lovely, a week ago Wednesday. That's her, singing her solo, just to the right of their wonderful choir director, Kathe Jordan. Poppy and Grandma were there with us, and Grandma swears she got more pictures, which is somehow better. Being the competitive family we are, there was some discussion later about quantity vs. quality. The photo here is representative of "quality".

Christmas Eve was at our house. Jackie, Yusuf, & Shiraz Cassim, and Rick, Becky, Jake, & Nina Price joined us for a crab feast. Dinner was lovely and we all enjoyed the homemade "Bouche de Noel" that Emily spent all day preparing. Shiraz had recently shaved his head in a trendy fashion move and so I had company in the hairless department on Christmas Eve. Here's a pic of we hairless "twins".

Christmas morning was pretty wonderful and relaxing. Poppy and Grandma drove down from their comfortable sleeping quarters (at John & Lynn Price's--they were in El Salvador for Christmas) and we all opened presents sometime around 8:30 or 9, and then had a leisurely breakfast. That night we all went to Rick and Becky's for a wonderful prime rib dinner, and enjoyed the food and most excellent company. Andy, Nancy, and Allen Price were there, along with dear friends Robert Allen and Dennis Vaux.

And yesterday, Boxing Day, was my penultimate chemo infusion. Yay, yay, and double yay! Em took me to the cancer center after 1, and they were running a bit behind (four nurses had called in sick), so Frank picked her up at 5:45 so she could get ready for her guests (she had some of her friends over for gift exchange and sleepover), and then he came back to relieve her. We got out of the cancer center a little after 7 p.m.

And now? I have one infusion left. I'm still just-this-close-to-anemic (inching down from 9.6 to 9.2--where below 9.0 gets me the much needed aranesp shot). And I continue to suffer minor GI effects. All in all, really, nothing to complain about.

My folks left Fairfield this morning and should be in Pasadena sometime this evening. They're going to have tons of fun doing Rose Bowl parade touristing, along with some other SoCal delights, before heading on back East. We had a lovely visit and look forward to seeing their photos from their trip down South. Here's a parting photo of the lovely couple, from Christmas Eve.