Christmas in New York! - Walking in the Winter Wonderland?

"Santa Claus is Coming to Town", "Sleigh Bells Ringing" and "Walking in the Winter Wonderland" were played over and over at the store where I do most of my grocery shopping. It helps to get you into the "Christmas mood"! I always got a kick out of "Winter Wonderland" because we have had hardly any snow here and it is all gone now. Yesterday it felt more like spring, which made it very enjoyable making all those trips to the store to get all the stuff we needed for our Christmas meals.

Ray, Alayna and Kara came back yesterday from Florida in time to go to the Christmas Eve service at Trinity - "The Messy Gift of Christmas." Jesus was born in a messy stable to show that God is not afraid of messes. He came to this messy world to help us clean up the messes that we get into all the time. All of us have to decide if we will let God do what he wants to do with our lives.

We had a really good Christmas day, starting the day off with our traditional Strawberry Blintzes. I wish Justin could have been with us, but I was so happy to have the rest of the family here and that Renee got out in time for Christmas. Renee was excited that she could help cook the meal that we started planning weeks ago! She was a bit tuckered out after all that cooking and we all were a bit tired after that yummy dinner. After we all had a little rest, we went to see the 85 foot Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center. We walked all the way there, but took a cab on the way back. Finished the evening off with the delicious Cranberry Chocolate Tart that Renee had made. (We got all the recipes from epicurious.com.)

Check out Renee's elfyourself fun1 and fun2

Renee got out of the hospital last week Wednesday, December 19. That means she was in there for 5 weeks and 5 days, for a total of 40 days. Now she just has to go to the day hospital three times a week to get IV medication for the lung infection and to get transfusions as needed. She doesn't need the GCS-F shots anymore since her white cell counts are good, so the platelet counts will soon start to improve. Yesterday morning the platelets were very low. I think they should have given her two bags on Friday. The plan is to do the transplant, anywhere from the middle of January to the beginning of February.

Alayna is leaving tomorrow evening and Kara and I the day after that. The plan is that I will come back to New York on January 4, but since we mostly operate on a day to day basis, nothing is ever for sure. Ray will stay here with Renee while I am gone. I have very mixed emotions about going "home".

A big thank you to all who sent cards, packages, emails, and most of all for praying. Reminds me of 2 Cor. 1:11 from the Message. "I can see your faces even now, lifted in praise for God's deliverance of us,..in which your prayers played such a crucial part."

My prayer is that we will all be able to continue keeping our focus on the Lord and say as Mary did: "How I rejoice in God my Saviour....For He, the Mighty One, is holy, and he has done great things for me", during this Christmas season and all through the year, whatever it may bring.

Martha