Bill's recovery

Last Friday marked the start of a long recovery process for Chris' father, Bill. As mentioned before, Chris' father is struggling through two different cancers, one called multiple myeloma and a neuroendocrine tumor. This tumor has affected his liver and as a result, had to have half of his liver removed, along with his gall bladder and appendix. Friday was a long day for Chris' family, as they waited many hours in the waiting room throughout the day before they were able to see him. I unfortunately had to work, so I was unable to be with my family during this trying time. As pain was high and his ability to sleep was low, Bill had a troubling first night. Although the doctor's were not able to remove all of the tumor from his liver, there are high hopes for his recovery from this cancer. Throughout the weekend, Bill continued to battle long nights of xrays and body scans, while continuing to find the strength to get up and walk the dreaded halls. Every day Bill looks better and better, with more color in his face and a livelier tone in his voice. Last night, for the first time Bill was able to do a full walk down the halls of his recovery floor. Days left in the hospital are unknown, as it all depends on day by day healing. We are hoping that Bill will be able to spend Christmas at home, instead of sitting in a hospital bed, but we are all letting God lead the way.

Please continue to pray for Bill and his family, as this is just a small step in overcoming his battle with cancer.

Stockings

Here is a picture of Chris and I's Christmas stockings.

Confused? Only one stocking? Well, this isn't actually either of our stockings. Our stockings are unfortunately at our parents' homes and we were unable to receive both in time for Christmas. So, this is a just a picture of our baby's stocking. Wait, what?! Yes, you read right - our baby's, well our future baby's. Chris and I are expecting our first child! Follow our journey from newlyweds to parenthood at littlebabygbean.blogspot.com. You'll have a lot of catching up to do! ;)

Oh Christmas Tree...

This will Chris' and I first Christmas together as a married couple. As some, or many of you may know, Chris and I did not live together before we were married. We tried to stay as traditional as possible, including no over night stays. So, being able to have this first official holiday together in our own home is sooo exciting for me! Unfortunately, as a single girl I did not have any Christmas decorations on hand to set our home up for the holidays. Thankfully, Chris' mother and godparents came to our rescue! They both donated a Christmas tree (thank you so much Ed and Mary!), lights, other Christmas decorations, and two boxes of all of Chris' holiday ornaments dating back from his first Christmas. So, as all these boxes lay in our living room for the past two weeks since Thanksgiving, I finally had the energy to do something about it. While Chris was out training, I rearranged our living room and set up our Christmas tree in front of our window. I hurried to put the lights up and open the curtains so when Chris came home he would see it from the driveway. Thankfully he was able to see it when he came home and said he was so happy! We spent the rest of the night going through his ornaments and his telling me stories of his childhood, as we drank hot cocoa by the fireplace with Christmas carols playing in the background. Okay, the cocoa and songs didn't happen, nor the fireplace scene - although, the story telling was fun. Here's a couple of my favorite Chris ornaments, along with our tree (which is tiny, but perfect for us), and Chris' Nativity scene (which I still need material for underneath). What a wonderful way to end a wonderful year!

Chris in first grade :)