A Happy Holiday Hiatus

Merry Christmas!! Sorry I have not posted in a bit. We were busy being Merry! Wow! What a wonderful holiday we had! You can't keep a Cooke down during the holiday season and this year was no exception ... the only difference was I had a legion of elves this year. And I was more like a sack of potatoes laying on the couch while all the elves made magic (and an entire meal.) Sometimes it takes a village, sometimes it takes the Jorgensen/Cooper/Luna/Cooke Brigade to throw a feast. And feast we did. (I'm still eating Christmas Day leftovers. Is that a health risk, or you think that shit is still edible?) Cancer recap: Week before Christmas, blood went from 10.9 to 5.1 - that's what I'm talking about! Good, old fashioned Christmas Miracle! That was after the Cisplatin week, which seems to be the drug that is working the best. My awesome girlfriend Chris Steltz slept over at the hospital with me. (I just typed "my dear, dear friend Chris" but thought that made her sound stuffy, when in fact, she is one of the most fun loving, laid back people I know. She is a dear but "hot stuff" fits her better.) I told her we had to wear cute pajamas and stay up all night and share secrets like we were college roommates. Her only reply was, "Well, of course, but I don't have cute pajamas." So while picking up stocking stuffers at CVS, I went out of my way and bought her $9 pink polka dot flannel pj's. They've probably fallen apart in the wash already. My mom and her husband Bruce, my youngest sister Taylor and her children, Hailey (6) and William (3) arrived from North Carolina on Saturday. We played and played and played. And then sometimes Aunt Mimi (that's me) needed to take a nap. So I'd lay down and then a little William would sneak in and come to the edge of the bed and say, "Aunt Mimi, whatcha doing?" Inevitably he would climb in with me and snuggle (my favorite) and we'd turn on the TV and watch Sponge Bob (his favorite) and no napping would occur. But that's the fun of having family around, right? Wouldn't change my snuggle time for anything! It snowed a bit here on Christmas Eve. So special. The kids who came from North Carolina didn't bring any snow clothes - go figure! But we bundled them up and let them loose. This is really the first time William has been old enough to go out and play in the snow! So fun to watch his excitement and watch him get cold! Yes, Santa came. Yes, there were a million presents under the tree. Yes, our garbage pails are overflowing from the amount of wrapping paper and boxes left over. Yes, you need a PhD to get most kids toys out of the packaging. Yes, invariably small children will want to play with the one toy that they can't - in this case it was William's tee-ball batting practice game. Not an indoor game and everything was snowy/muddy outside. (Aunt Mimi, can you open this for me? Can I play this now? I'm going to go outside to play this now.)   There were two distinct piles on Christmas morning: Pink and Barbie - Toy Story and Sponge Bob   William all dressed in his Christmas outfit rocking his Spiderman sunglasses (the glare from the snow was really bad!) In the background is the tee ball game he really wanted to play. My Santa Claus was very good to me. Chris gave me a beautiful David Yurman ring and a big deal Nikon camera. So maybe the pics on this blog will be of better quality now. I tried to get fancy/schmancy with this one: a pic of the ring with the new camera (see how I worked that all in?? I got Chris a firearm and a surf board. We're hoping he doesn't attempt to use those gifts at the same time.) The Cookes joined us for dinner Christmas night for a total of 15 mouths to feed. It was no problem because we made enough food for 150 people. I like to think that our families would have come to our house even if I wasn't sick this year. But if cancer is the reason that so many of us got to share the holiday together, I'll take that as a beautiful blessing.