The Holidays are coming!!

"It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas" and feel like it too!! This week it finally starting looking more like Christmas.  We got 4+ inches of snow on Friday night into Saturday morning - a good excuse to stay home!!  Mommy did have to go to class on Saturday, but it was just across town, which was ok.  Daddy tried taking Saxy and Raine outside to play while he shoveled.  Sax loved the snow, but would not keep his mittens and hat on, so he had to go back into the house :-(  I'm really hoping we're going to be able to get him to keep them on soon so we can go sledding and build snowmen.

Sax has developed a love for trains - taking after his daddy!  Raine has a Thomas the Train wooden set, and the two of them play so nicely with them!!!  The first words out of his mouth in the morning "Train!! Train!!"  We have to actually put the trains into the basement to get him to do anything!! But it's nice that the kids can play together nicely with something!!

This past weekend was the Toy Train Show at the mall... both the kids loved it so much!! Raine looks forward to it every year, and now that Saxon is old enough, he gets pretty excited!!  We wandered through a couple of times and looked at all of the elaborate displays... and it was officially decided that Saxon needs some of his own trains to play with instead of just his sister's.  Raine picked out a few pieces, with the help of Daddy.  We buy a lot from one of the vendors there, and he always has a gift for the kids with our purchase.  In the past, Raine has gotten plain train cars that she can paint herself - one of which Daddy painted for her.  This year, Saxon got the gift - a Thomas engine that matches the one Raine has.  Now they each have their own, and couldn't be happier!!

Tuesday saw Saxon and I making a trip to Mayo all by ourselves.  Daddy went in to work late so that he could take Raine to school at 8.  Mommy and Saxy had to be at the ENT at 9 am for a checkup with Stephanie, Dr Cofer's nurse.  The appointment was to check to see if his ear infection had cleared up or not in his left ear, and to see the progress in his right ear and determine if the tube would need to be replaced. 

And the verdict is.......

NO SURGERY!!!!  The left ear was all clear of infection, and there was nothing draining in his right.  There was just the residual hole from where the tube had come out.  But there was no drainage visible either!! Such GOOD news!!!  Saxon's lymph nodes in his neck are still a little swollen, but Stephanie said that is nothing to worry about.  She said she wants to see Sax in 4 months or sooner, so we have decided to schedule his ENT checkups at the same time we do his CF checkups to save a trip.

So, in the spirit of the season, here's some of the things we're thankful for this year:

• Good health throughout our home
• Only 1 surgery for the year for Saxy
• Daddy being SO AMAZING that Mommy can stay home to take care of the kids
• Family and friends that have stood by us through all the difficult times in the past year
• A wonderful daughter who is so helpful to Mommy and Daddy
• Terrific doctors that actually care about our family
• A much-needed getaway for the family
• Daddy having plenty of work at the shop
• Mommy's business filling in the gaps
• A SUPER supportive CF community

Now to pray that we make the rest of year as uneventful as it has been so far.......