Pointsettias at Church and Hospital

Ed and I sang with the Alpine Joyful Christmas Sounds Choir last night! It was fun to be a part of a really good choir and help ring in the season. It was led by director Marvin Payne, who made Sunday practices at 9 p.m. seem worth it! We also brought a couple of poinsettias to bring home afterwards! It was also great for me to feel good enough to participate!

We met with the BMT team at Huntsman Hospital this morning. Dr. Halwani recommended we visit with them, as he is just not sure how aggressive my cancer will be going forward. As a preemtive strike we are going to have my siblings tested to see if any of them would be a good match as a donor. I'm in remission now, but if I came out of remission it would be nice to have things in place for a stem cell transplant. They would do it with a donation of blood. They can also check on the bone marrow registry to see if there is another donor if my siblings are not a match! In the meantime, I have another bone marrow biopsy next week, and they will send that off to a fourth lab, hopefully the National Institutes of Health, to see what their opinion is. I have had three different diagnosis: SMZL (in the spleen), atypical CLL, and atypical PBLL. If it truly a spleen disorder a Bone Marrow Transplant would not be the proper treatment. If it is one of the other choices it might be much more likely to come back. In the meantime, I feel great and intend to enjoy the Christmas Holidays!

Singing at the Ward Christmas Party

Alpine Sage sang the song Christmas in the Cove last night at the ward party. This was Ken, Ed and Dave, setting up for our gig! We also joined the choir for another number, What Shall we Give to the Babe in the Manger, which we did with guitars and drum!

We were happy the Bishopric was able to use our Three Kings costumes from last year! They walked around handing out treats during the party!

And kudos to the Elder's Quorum who served a great brisket and BBQ chicken for dinner!

If anyone has nice pictures of the choir or Alpine Sage, please share them with me! I'm wondering if we looked as great as we sounded...

Snow Fun

We haven't built a snowman in years, but the warmer weather and the granddaughters gave us a reason to do just that on Saturday! Mabel named him Mabel.

I use the term "us" lightly, as Ed did all the heavy labor, with a little help from Mabel!

I had fun pushing the girls on the swings while grandpa did the finishing touches!

The girls also had fun going down the slide and landing in a pile of snow!

Clementine loved it, despite the fact that her mittens kept falling off! We finally convinced them it might be fun to go inside and sit by a cozy fire!

Alpine Sage.. Together at Last

The entire slow jam met last night for our penultimate rehearsal! It was nice to have the whole band together at last! To say we're a little tentative is an understatement! Our big gig is a week from Saturday at Spring Gardens assisted living! When we're not messing up it sounds terrific!

Book Club review of An American Marriage

We had a great book club discussion on Wednesday. I enjoyed putting out some Christmas snacks for the ladies. Then I ate most of them myself!

The book was An American Marriage by Tayari Jones. I thought it was one of the most beautifully written books I'd read in a long time. It also had plenty to talk about, and it was fun to hear everyone's opinion! I was glad we got to hear the author when we were in Steamboat in December. It helped get a feel for where she was coming from in writing the book!

Fun with Grandkids

We did a little babysitting this week, as Brittany's sitter was sick. It was fun for us to take the girls to Arctic Circle again! They enjoyed having the whole play area to themselves after dinner!

We enjoyed having them over in the morning today! It is so nice that they are playing together now. They had a good time rocking each other in the cradle made by Grandpa 30 years ago!

Provo Lighting of the Lights

Last Saturday night we went to Provo for the lighting of the Christmas lights. It was cold out, so we all bundled up!

Who knew they had fireworks as well? That was a nice plus!

We got a nice picture of Brittany, John and the girls with the trees lit behind them! Then we went to at Good Thyme Eatery where we had a delicious dinner and also warmed up!

We've been fun getting ready for Christmas this year. Mabel and Clementine are both getting really excited for it! Here is a video of them singing Jingle Bells!