Happy New Year!

Well, what a busy two weeks and a great holiday we have had!

Rachel decided not to go home after I got home from the hospital, so we got to have her around for a nice long stay. She managed to visit some friends here in DC, and helped me get ready for the holiday, and we even made it to work a couple of days. I continued to get IV antibiotic until the 16th, when they determined that I was all better, and we were done with the daily trip to the doctors office. On the 18th, the surgeon got rid of the last drain, and I was 100% and ready to go on vacation, the only condition that she gave me was not to drive all the way to Massachusetts. No problem there. Rachel left for NYC on Thursday, hoping to find Michael and spend some time with some friends in the big city. United airlines managed to get Michael to NY only 24 hours late, and he and Rae headed to the Kings for a couple days. Bert and I left on Sunday morning. It was cold, and we had had freezing rain overnight, but the roads were clear and we had a good drive to Connecticut, after a slight detour to my Dad's home town, and a drive by of my grandparents house when I was a kid. Amazing that I drove right to it.

Monday morning was cold, 11 degrees, but again the sun was out, and we were all on our way. I know you NW'ers are all saying to yourself "11 degrees, big deal" since you have us WAY beat on shitty weather, since we haven't even had snow on the ground here yet in DC.

We stopped in Essex, CT for lunch at a fabulous place some friends had taken me last year for lunch. The Griswold Inn has been providing meals and operated as an Inn for some 300 years, and has the best collection of American maritime art on the walls. Very cool place. We arrived at Cape Cod at the end of the day, and instantly fell in love with our house we had chosen. It was perfect for our holiday, and Bert took us out first thing Tuesday morning and we got a perfect little Christmas tree (or two!) and got them decorated and the stocking hung, and we were ready! We just needed Michal and Jason!

We went on Tuesday night and had a great dinner with Michael's grandparents. We really enjoyed visiting with them.

Christmas Eve we went into Boston for a visit to Quincy Market and the Boston back bay, and then off to the airport, where Alaska Air managed better than United, since Michal and Jason arrived only a couple hours late. Then we went back downtown where we found Meghan (our other adopted daughter) for a nice dinner at a restaurant on the historic Long Wharf in Boston. The restaurant was located in the warehouse where John Hancock had his office. Very cool, and not a bad dinner either!

Christmas Day was great fun, with the 7 of us together, and then joined by Bert's brother Chris and his family, and a visit from Michael's Grandparents again, we had a full house and a very festive day. The weather was dry, sunny and cold, but we did all go for a walk on the beach, but we didn't stay long!

Friday we drove to the end of the cape to Provincetown, and Saturday, in spite of the fact that it had now started raining, and Meghan had to go home to NY, we toured Boston and had a great day. Sunday we decided to be lazy, partly because Michael had to leave to go to his parents, so the boys spent the day watching football and girls snuck out for a little therapy shopping (it had been days!) and then Chris and gang returned, and we had a lobster dinner par excellance!

That dinner was so good we wish we had gotten lobster every night!

Monday we were up and out early and headed to NYC. Arrived in the late afternoon, and by the end of the day we had walked our little feeties of and seen a ton of stuff, in spite of the fact that the city was a mad house and full of tourists. 2 1/2 hour wait to go up the Empire State building, so needless to say we had to save that for another trip. Bert and I dropped the kids off at Meg's in Brooklyn at 11:30 and then we headed for New Jersey, since I had to be back to go to the doctor's the next day. We just drove long enough to be sure we were out of traffic Tuesday morning. So, now I am back in the routine, labs Tuesday afternoon, and chemo yesterday.

But as you can tell by everything we have done lately, I am feeling dang good. It was great to feel good on our trip, and missing my dose of chemo because of the surgery was the silver lining of the horrible start to the month, since I had no weird chemo side effects during our trip.

Hope you all had as great a holiday as we did!