Day 73--Happy Boxing Day!

Also known as St. Stephen's Day, Boxing Day is a holiday celebrated (I think...don't quote me on this) in England, Canada, and Australia, and traditionally considered a day to offer gifts to those less fortunate than you. (Whereas, Christmas is traditionally a day when we give gifts to friends and loved ones.) I have no idea why it's called Boxing Day, but since I didn't get around to posting on Christmas, I felt like I needed to give a little nod to Boxing Day. If you prefer, it's also Kwanzaa, according to our calendar, so you can take your pick. The holiday spirit abounds!

We had about as wonderful a Christmas as we could have imagined under the circumstances, particularly since neither one of us knew last summer whether we'd get to have another Christmas together. This is the tiny fake tree we bought at Target...it looks much bigger in the picture than it actually is. In reality, it looks like just the top of a real Christmas tree if it had been lopped off and put in a pot. But it's perfect for our hotel room. I can honestly say that I've never appreciated Christmas cards more than I have this year. And we had some wonderful gifts from friends and family, including a Liberace Christmas record (with a companion copy burned onto a CD) from Carolyn and Garry. (Not sure how to describe our relationship with C&G..."in-law in-laws"? They're our brother-in-law Mark's folks, so they're family, but also good friends.) Anyway, it turns out, miraculously, that Torger had just been regretting earlier in the week that he didn't own any Liberace Christmas music. The round, red package on the left in the picture was from the hotel staff, and guess what it was? A blanket to replace the one that got stolen from our car! We thought that was really nice. And back in the fall, when we'd bought a few books and videos to enjoy during the 100 days, Torger had sneakily stashed some of them away so I forgot all about them. And they show'd up under the tree from Santa! We had a good Christmas Eve visit from Alex and Brandy, and Mom and Rich came by for a few minutes in the afternoon on Christmas Day to have some hot apple cider and wish us a Merry Christmas. They gave us our copy of the latest family calendar, which they assemble each year with pictures from the year before. Torger features prominently in this year's calendar, and we were both kind of taken aback by one picture of him taken in the late summer, when he looked so much sicker than he does now. (At the time, we thought he looked pretty good.) Later, I made a little roast for the two of us for dinner, with biscuits and mashed potatoes and veggies. Then we went over to the 11th floor at the hospital to drop off some treats for the nurses...peanut butter cookies and some toffee...and a Yachtzee game for the floor rec room, since we wound up with a spare. We saw our favorite CNA Brian, who was wearing an elf hat and told us he'd managed to pass his English class. Hooray! (I wrote about our attempts to help him with this class in one of my earlier posts.) Torger wished the whole staff a Merry Christmas, and they seemed really happy to see him, especially looking so well. We also left a little care package for a couple we've met at the hospital. The husband was diagnosed with multiple myeloma just 10 days after Torger, so we've gotten to know them as we've all been cycling through the BMT floor, lab appointments, and clinic days. Unfortunately, treatment for his illness requires not one but TWO stem cell transplants, and he went back in for his second just a couple of weeks ago. Torger and I just can't imagine going through that agonizing process twice in such a short period. It's another reminder of how lucky we've been through this whole process.

Then we came home, listened to a little Liberace, watched a DVD and went to bed. All in all, a great holiday.