I haven’t updated in awhile — I feel so bad about it! I’ll have to catch up with picture posting over Winter Break.

We have been thoroughly enjoying the holidays so far. We had a very nice Thanksgiving with my cousin Alison and her boyfriend Gavin, and now we are rocketing toward Christmas with lots of excitement.

Dwayne and I bought one of those advent calendars that has a little door for each day, and Dinah and Djuna love to open those doors to see what little goodie is inside. It could be anything from a piece of chocolate to Christmas socks, so that is a fun moment each evening after dinner.

We got the house decorated and our tree up this past weekend. It’s our first year with an artificial tree. Dinah in particular sniffled all last December while the tree was up, so we figured we’d try a fake tree. Artificial trees are so expensive that we went on Craigslist and found a very nice 7.5 foot one for a great price. It actually looks pretty good!

Soon, we’ll do our annual trip to Travel Town (a part of Griffith Park that has been set aside as an interactive train museum) for a Train Ride to Santa. The park staff decorates the park with lights, and they blare Christmas music. We go at nighttime, ride the train, enjoy the lights, visit with Santa, get our pictures taken and then dash back to the car to warm our fingers. Yes, it actually does get pretty nippy at nighttime in the winter here in So. Cal.

I feel great and grateful to be able to move on with my life after cancer.