Merry Christmas

I hope you all had a wonderful, even white, Christmas. Ours was fabulous. My sister made it home safely, my mom was feeling relatively well, and I ate my weight in pumpkin pie and snickerdoodles. But my favorite part of Christmas? The part where the truth of my life comes back into perfect focus.

O Holy Night is my all-time favorite Christmas song – even the Kenny G version can rouse a tear or two. Here’s my favorite verse:

Long lay the world in sin and error pining
Till he appeared and the soul felt its worth.
A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.

It’s the perfect portrayal of my life before and after knowing Christ. I was desperately lost until in the depth of my pain, God called to me. And for once I turned toward him rather than away. All of the joy and the peace I have come to know since are a result of his deep love. I pray the gift of this holiday would heal you in the same way. Oh, and may you enjoy all of the whipped cream and hot chocolate you can stand. Merry Christmas!

Not too shabby

Surprisingly my mom is still feeling pretty well after her chemo treatment from a week ago. She's been pretty tired, but no nausea or achyness to speak of. This can still change any day, especially as she gets more chemo, but for right now we're enjoying the reprieve.

And speaking of reprieves, Sam got to come home super early from work yesterday after a huge water pipe burst. Even though some downtown buildings were flooded and many were without water for most of the day, it was sitll a close call as to whether he'd be able to leave. Before they got the official word, Sam wrote me this email:

"Rumors are circulating that the Huntington Building may close, I am not getting too excited though. The wheels of capitalism must keep rolling, despite the workers’ needs to excrete and consume coffee. The means of production must go on, sanitation and health be damned."

The for-profit world is a harsh one.

It's the most wonderful time of the year

Ohio's climate continues to surprise me. The other day we had quite a winter rainstorm that melted all of the snow. And what was under that snow? Answer: Green grass.

First of all, Colorado is not likely to see rain in the winter (a combination of it being too dry and too cold), but if such an event were to occur, you certainly would not find green grass hidden beneath any snow. Brown, crunchy vegetative splotches perhaps. But not green grass.

You can even see a tree in the distance with leaves on it still! Amazing.

Last night Sam and I went to see the Radio City Christmas Spectacular at a downtown Cleveland theater. Fun show. As we were driving home we discovered this Christmas gem on the radio. May it...uh...brighten your holidays as it did ours.

One down

So far so good, emphasis on so far. Thanks to heaps of steroids, my mom had one of her best feeling days since her surgery. But we know this is temporary. I guess the chemo is supposed to really kick in some time tomorrow or Sunday. In the meantime, we've been errand running and cooking and sewing all day.

As we wait to see what tomorrow will hold, may I recommend this hilarious blog and this other hilarious blog? Let me know if you don't come close to wetting yourself. Seriously funny.

Bring on the cure

My mom will begin her chemo treatment today. The doctor's gave her a huge book to read beforehand about chemo and the potential side effects. It was discouraging to say the least. Of course there are going to be a lot of side effects when you poison your body. But after reading the grim news for several days, she made a decision. She decided that she's not going to look at all of the potential bad to come; instead, she's going to focus on the long-term good. And thus was born her new mantra..."This is the cure."

So she's going to lose her hair and possibly some fingernails. This is the cure. So there might be a lot of pain ahead. This is the cure. So she might get a mean case of the hiccups during some treatments. Well, that one doesn't sound so bad, but still, This is the cure.

I'm sure there will be very hard days ahead, but I'm thankful my mom continues to find strength in herself, in her family, and in God. And so today begins the next chapter of her journey.

Tucked away

My new place of work has this beautiful wall of windows that look out over a thick, beautiful forest of tall, skinny trees that go on an on and the windows are so tall they perfectly emphasize the height of the trees. The only problem with this amazing marriage of architecture and nature? The fact that the windows are locked in a staff room at the back of the library that never actually sees staff. Fortunately there are several other nice window areas as well. Just not as nice as this hidden one.