Many "Beds of Roses" this year!!

Bob and I won't be sending out our traditional "Bed of Roses" Christmas greetings, although this year the experience of spending lots of time in "bed" is more accurate than ever!!!

Our family will be gathering in Regina at Tim and Kim's for Christmas, so the many beds will all be full of Roses!! Billy and Manny look so forward to joining Colby and Carson sleeping in bunk beds together, and Gracyn and Mykenna will move into the toy room to escape the "boy cooties"!! Since Barbie also lives in Regina, there are enough beds between her condo and Tim and Kim's home for all of us.

Kim will begin her chemo treatment two days before Christmas!!! She was hoping that it might be delayed until after Christmas, but that wasn't to be. We will all give her lots of help and try our best to be in good health to prevent Kim from catching any germs.

My brother Jim is still recuperating from his dramatic surgery in November and learning to eat many small meals a day, as he feels full after just a few bites. He and Kim are considering whether he will have another round of chemo in the new year. Please pray for direction and continued healing.

This will be a very special Christmas to savour as a family with lots of love, joy, and thanksgiving filling our hearts. I know that this year each of us has had a fresh encounter with the living Christ, and celebrating the wonder of His birth will take on a deeper significance than ever before. He came to be Emmanuel--"God with us"--and our experience of His very real presence this year has been amazing!!

Here is a picture taken of Bob and me last week, the very day he had surgery to insert a "graft" in his arm whereby he'll have a more permanent vascular access to dialysis. Doesn't he look great? We are full of gratitude to the Lord for bringing us to the end of this year with more strength, joy, and peace than we ever could have imagined a few months ago. GOD IS SO GOOD!!

Have a "joy-filled" Christmas,
Bob and Carol