belated Christmas Card

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Merry Christmas

I hope everybody had a terrific Christmas. Ours was great! Went to Christmas eve service last night, then had the family over my house this morning and we opened presents and had a Christmas Brunch. Santa was kind to Kevin, as well as Scotty and Jacob. Rachel, Mike, my siblings (and their spouces), and grandma and grandpa all were over. Kevin had a big smile on his face all morning long. He's going on vacation with Rachel and Mike until next weekend. Then we embark on our trip to St. Jude. My thoughts are with all the families at St. Jude who had to spend Christmas there. I know St. Jude, the Target House and the Ronald McDonald House all do a wonderful job in making the most of the Holidays for the patients and their families. Still, I know having spent some of our own holidays there, it's not the same as being home. I hope everybody has a safe and happy New Year as well

Eric

Kevin on TV

Here is the video we got from WXYZ channel 7 in Detroit showing Kevin reading from A Flake Like Mike last Sunday, Dec. 14. It's only a few minutes long. Kevin does a great job.

Daddy Mike

Kids for A Cure Wrapping in Rochester Hills Michigan

There is a fundraiser for CureSearch. CureSearch has united the world's largest childhood cancer research organization, the Children's Oncology Group, and the National Childhood Cancer Foundation.

Date: December 23, 2008
Time: 12:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Location:Barnes & Noble
2800 S. Rochester RdRochester Hills, MI 48307

Kids for a Cure Gift Wrapping at Barnes and Noble Bookstore in Rochester! Free holiday gift wrapping with a donation to CureSearch featuring performances by violinists Three Crowns Trio and friends http://www.threecrownstrio.com/
Contact for more informationinfo@curesearch.org248-853-9855

So Proud

Words can not express how proud of Kevin I am this morning. He did a wonderful job reading portions of "Flake Like Mike" on the Channel 7 News this morning. He was so nervous, but he pulled through and did St. Jude's and Sak's proud. The goal of course is for his participation to stimulate sales of the book, with $2 of every sale going directly to St. Jude. I was nervous for him, as I sat in the studio with the Regional St. Jude represnative. She was very helpful, as was the Sak's Executive who was on the air with Kevin. We look forward to helping St. Jude in any way we can in the future. I hope some of Kevin's friends, classmates, family, and community memebers were able to see him. As brave as he was, it still pales to the courage he and all of the other St. Jude children have shown through their battles. Saying that, I'm still very proud of him.

Take Care,

Eric

Sunday

The book that Kevin is reading and that Sak's is selling is called "Flake like Mike". Two dollars for every sale goes directly to St. Jude's. Kevin will be on at 9 a.m. unless a story bumps us. Unfortunately we won't know until the morning of. They're planning on having us on, but if there's a snow storm, or if the White House decides Sunday morning to give the Big 3 the Bridge Loan (please, please, please) then there's a possibility he won't be on. I hope everybody has a great weekend.

Eric

Sunday News

I just want to give a quick note to those who are local (and who I didn't email)....Kevin will be on WXYZ (channel 7) News, this Sunday morning at 9 a.m. Some of you may remember he did a reading at a fashion show/St. Jude Fund rasier at Sak's 5th Avenue a few weeks ago. Now they would like Kevin to read a small portion of the book on television, to promote the cause. I feel awful, but I forgot the name of the book....I will update that soon. Proceeds from the book (it's a children's book, something about snow flakes) goes to St. Jude. He'll be on live, so I'm a little nervous for him, but I'm sure he'll do fine. I'd probably be more of a wreck then him. Thankfully it's just him they're putting on.

Also, please continue prayers for other St. Jude families. Christian Harr in particular has had a rough go of it. Please read his recent blog and send him positive wishes: www.caringbridge.org/visit/christianharr

I hope everybody has a wonderful weekend, and is excited for the Holidays. I know we are. We'll be back at St. Jude the night of January 4th.

Take Care,

Eric

General Update

Things still seem to be going quite well with Kevin. I've certainly seen great strides in school. He still struggles with writting, but is definitely making solid improvements. His math and reading seems to be very good. His hair is definitely growing back. I think by January or February his hair will just be a little bit shorter version of his friends hair. He seems to have one "kind of" crummy day for every 7 or 8 good days. A typical bad day is a little nausea and lack of energy. We all had a very nice Thanksgiving, and are looking forward to Christmas. He's been positive and pretty strong overall. Although, last night he had a terrible nightmare. I fell asleep watching tv on the couch, and he started screaming for me in the middle of the night. I ran up stairs in record time, and he just grabbed hold of me, and told me to get in bed. He held on as tight as he could for a long time. I asked what the nightmare was about, and he said he couldn't remember, but that he was so glad I was there. It was really upsetting because I haven't seen him that scared inquite some time. Hopefully it's just a typical little kid nightmare about monsters or something. Although, we've not seen anything remotely scary of late on TV or DVD. My biggest fear would be if he's starting to have nightmares relating to his cancer. I just don't want to see him suffer any more. Hopefully it was a one time deal. Probably making too much of it (it's Rachel's job to over-react---j.k. ---lol), it was just very different to see him so desperately scared. ............Other then that everythings good. We're going back down to St. Jude in January. It will be strange, because in some ways St. Jude seems like a life time ago, even though it's only been 2 months since we've been home. I'll sign off for now.

Eric