I hope you all had a Merry Christmas!! We made our trip to Memphis earlier this week and it was quick as usual. Annie came with us and she is always entertaining to bring along. Mac's counts were good, his hemoglobin was back in the 10's and his platelets dropped to about 120,000. Feels a bit like a see saw! But relatively those are good numbers so we are still maintaining the status quo with the medicines. And thankfully we didn't encounter snow during our trip (although Mac & Annie would have loved it!)

Annie had written her letter to Santa early in December and before we mailed it to the North Pole, I read it. Under her list of presents she wanted, she asked Santa to remember the sick kids at St. Jude and bring them lots of presents too. Needless to say, our whole family has been affected by Mac's illness, but it amazes me how it touches children who find out that there are some really sick kids in this world. In fact, when we were there this time, we found out that a family from Mississippi, a Target House neighbor, was back because their little boy's cancer had returned. Ugh. There are so many other words to say, too many really, about the unfairness of it all, but "ugh" is what comes to mind. God has a plan for us all.

Otherwise it's been a relaxing vacation at home for us, and we look forward to ringing in the new year with friends and neighbors down the street, instead of in the Target House! Our new chant is "hemoglobin of 11 in '11"!!!

Here's wishing you a new year full of peace, lots of laughter and good health! I know that's what I'm wishing for!! Thank you for spending the last year and 1/2 with me, and for keeping Mac in your prayers. It's not time to stop praying yet, it never is, but I am thankful we have made it this far!

Happy New Year!!

We made our trip to Memphis for the St. Jude Marathon weekend and had a great time! At the St. Jude Heroes Pasta Dinner on Friday night, our team was awarded 5th place in fundraising with about $38,000!!! Amazing!! The teams come from all around the US!! And while we were fifth in fundraising, we were definitely first in spirit. No one else could Who Dat like Team MacAttack!!! (The picture above shows most of the team members on the stage receiving our plaque. The lady in green was the keynote speaker and the man in the suit is the president of ALSAC.)

The cold front held off and we woke up to partly cloudy skies and temperatures in the 50's. For those of us doing the 5K it was perfect. For the longer distance runners, it was almost too hot!! Today I'm just going to put a couple of pictures up, with a promise of many more to come. I didn't always have my camera ready, but between all of us, we have tons of pictures to share. So here's a picture of some of the kids on our team who ran the 5K.

Kids running for kids!!

And after the 5K, we could cheer for the 1/2 and whole marathoners. Hmm, that picture looks familiar. Same boy, same coat, a lot less puffiness, and a bigger smile!!! What a difference a year makes!

And after all the runners finished (everyone crossed the finish line in some shape or form), we gathered at Gail & Eric's house for a post race BBQ dinner Saturday night. By then the cold front had come in but casa Berntson was warm and glowing with the team members and lots of food and wine!! Thanks for opening up your home to us so we could relax and visit with old friends and meet new ones. We're very lucky to have some locals on our team! And while this year's race is over, we are already thinking about the next one. It's December 3, 2011, so mark your calendar and consider joining our team. Run for a reason. I promise you'll have fun!!! More pics soon. Stay tuned!