The boys woke up early for Christmas but they knew that they could not come out until after 7:30am. They stayed in bed and chatted and then you could hear the countdown begin once it approached 7:30am. It is far more exciting watching the kids open gifts then receiving gifts. They get so much joy out of some of the toys that they receive. Olivier liked some of the small toys that he received as he could cuddle with them. Once Xavier unwrapped some books, he started reading them right away as opposed to opening the rest of the gifts. The kids appreciated the presents and it is amusing that Xavier has never really gravitated towards traditional toys but always asks for science things or educational toys.
In the Christmas cards and well wishes people made remarks about hopefully next year will not be as tough as this year. I think that this year was not so bad. I was catered to for most of the year. Had breakfast in bed brought to me for months. Got out of doing most chores in the house and outside. Lost weight and am no longer obese. Reduced my body fat. Purchased a PS5. When I wanted to go somewhere, I was chauffeured around and dropped off at the door. While shopping I sat in a wheel chair and was pushed around. Found out that I have an amazing support system that will rally around us when we need it the most. What was so bad about that? I just had a small incidence of stomach cancer, surgery and treatments, but that was fleeting. A friend told me at the beginning of the year that 6 months would fly by, and it did. I got to end the year with brain surgery, so all in all, this was a memorable year and will be one that I am sure will be remembered for a long time. The number of good things far outweighed the two incidents that could be considered bad. I am not sure people realize how difficult it is to get your wife to bring you meals and snacks in bed for months on end. Seriously. Text your wife when she is in a work meeting and tell her that you are hungry and need to eat. See how quickly she comes with food. Almost as difficult as trying to find a PS5. I got lucky with that when I received notification that it was in stock and I managed to buy it. Mel’s work was quite accommodating as was my workplace. I am grateful for the accommodations that everyone made.
I had some appointments last week, or a couple of weeks ago now with doctors. My neurosurgeon has said that my brain is not 100% back to normal but the progress is looking really good. The brain is slowly healing itself and the progression looks good. My mother saw the side of my head and said she can see where the cuts were now. I had not told her too much about it because I did not want her to worry. When she came to visit it was always covered. I showed her the pictures from before and she said it was much bigger than she thought. She wanted my dad to see it and he was not too surprised. He said what did you expect if they were draining blood from the brain. They still am not use to the amount of food I eat and I still get advice frequently on what I should do in order to maintain my weight and get better.
Mel’s family and my family differ greatly when it comes to gift giving. We told the kids to only expect 1 gift from each of the members of my family. That is all we got growing up. Mel’s family is opposite and the numbers are never ending. You get a large amount of gifts both big and small. The kids appreciate both though. We had some meals with my family while my sister was in town. Olivier has a very sensitive palate and can tell when food is not the way he wants. My parents laughed and were not surprised. They know that if they try and change the recipes to something he does not like, he will call them out on it. We ate at my brother’s house and they made something my parents made and it was not the exact same and he made comments about it. I told my parents about the salt incidence and the food comments he makes. Their reply was that we should not always feed him higher end foods that are expensive because he would get use to that. I called my parents hypocrites because they always bought us high quality things that were difficult to obtain. My mom laughed and said we did not know that they were expensive. Olivier’s favorite are truffles, and when I told my mom she agreed that they were expensive. I think that they will be fine as they like cheap things as well like KD. Sometimes I enjoy a grilled cheese with the fake cheese and tomato soup from a can. I use to eat the burgers from Deluxe. Not because they were delicious, but because they were nostalgic and reminded me of high school. When I think of delicious burgers my first thought is not Deluxe, but I still enjoy them.
I think that 2022 will be exciting. Right now I am cancer-free and if it comes back next year I am quite experienced with it at this point. Looking back the toughest part by far was the combination of chemo and radiation. Now that I know how to eat though and can manage that, I think I can handle it much better. I have received so many needles this year that when I got the Covid booster at the recommendations of all 90 of my doctors it was so painless. It was a nice change from all of the other needles this year. The flu shot vaccine hurt more than the Covid booster.
Quoc Hao
So refreshing to read your blog. I enjoy it very much and it makes me grow better everyday. Thanks.