Let the holidays begin......

Well, I guess the holiday season is now in full gear. Our family spent Thanksgiving at my brother's house where he and Amber put together a wonderful turkey dinner. My sister and mother were there as well as Sean. Everyone had a great time and enjoyed a wonderful meal. I hope everyone else had a safe and enjoyable holiday wth their families. Now, I guess it's on to Christmas. I hate to admit it, but I am not looking forward much to Christmas this year. The holidays always bring more than it's share of stress and that is one thing I am striving to remove from my life as much as possible. It nevers seems to quite happen like that , but it's a good goal anyway.

Sherry wanted to thank everyone for the emails (and e-card :) She was especially pleased to hear from her youngest son Eric who called from the Chicago area to check in on his mom. His call put a very big smile on her face. She was also glad that she could spend Thanksgiving with her oldest son. She wanted me to thank Jody for not minding that he spent the day away from her and their family. So, thank you for that Jody.

I would be lying if I said the last few weeks have not been very tough on us all. Sherry feels as if she is not "moving forward" while she recovers from her operation. She feels like she spends too much time sitting on her tush, as she would say. She really gets down on herself and becomes emotional and it is hard on everyone. It is made worse, I think, because much of the time we are stuck at home on the weekends. We do get out to chuch with the help of some very nice people, but other than that we are stuck at home. This being a very long weekend, it has just been harder than most I guess.

At church today, Pastor Doug gave a sermon that really hit home (as his sermons often seem to do .) It was all about not giving up or being satisfied with where we are in life. It was about always remembering to "run toward the goal." It was very inspiring, and seemed to speak directly to Sherry's situation (even though we of course know it was directed at a much wider audience.) I think Sherry got a lot out of it and I intend on reminding her of it it during some of her down times. We appreciate our Pastor and our church so much. I was never a very religious man and I still struggle with the big questions, but there is no doubt that our church has taken us to their hearts and have helped us a geat deal. It is one of the good things we can point to that has came out of this whole ordeal. Who knows, maybe they can even help me get out of my holiday funk!

well, enough for now,

I love my wife.....tomorrow we run torward the goal,

Dean