Still out and about

It's been a while since the last post. Thankfully things have been pretty busy and the time has gone by quickly. Jordon is still out of the hospital and doing well. His blood counts are still climbing slowly but surely. We go into the hospital a couple of times a week for blood draws and a clinic visit with the bone marrow docs. They say everything is going well, it's "just a long process." Other than feeling tired he's doing great. We hang out a lot at the apartment, away from sick people and big holiday crowds. We were able to do our Christmas shopping in the off hours when the locals weren't all out. (Must be what the celebrities feel like) We keep thinking his hair will grow back in, but still no sign of a new helmet. All in good time. Some peach fuzz came in on his face, it looks like a 14 year old's first mustache, sexy.
Christmas was wonderful. All of the Mickelsens came down for a few days. We ate Christmas Eve dinner at Crown Burger (definitely a first on Christmas Eve, but awesome) and walked around Temple Square to see the lights. The crazy ones ended the cold walk with milkshakes, the rest of us had hot chocolate. We were all together for Christmas day to open presents, eat and eat and eat, and watch basketball and Christmas movies. It was so good to be together. We had a bunch of snow start to fall on Christmas Eve and all day on Christmas. What a beautiful, white Christmas!
After Christmas the Marshalls came down for a visit. Again we ate and ate, opened presents and just enjoyed hanging out. All the visits made spending Christmas out of town a great time and made it a novelty for the kids. We even had a white trash Charlie Brown Christmas tree for the apartment. 
The kids have been with us for Christmas break. We're pretty cramped in the apartment, but it's fabulous to be a family again. We're all ready to be back home, but so happy to be together and out of the hospital. Addie learned how to play Chicken's foot with the dominoes and we do lots of little art projects and games (with a good chunk of Netflix cartoons)
Christmas was very special this year. It seemed like the general feeling was one of gratitude more than presents and Santa. Gratitude for being healthy, gratitude for the miracles we've witnessed with Jordon's treatment, and gratitude to be together with people we love to celebrate the birth of our Savior this season. We're very blessed.