Jon did fairly well with his first chemo but already experienced the Thursday afternoon "crash" from the premeds and felt pretty crummy on Friday and Saturday. It was disappointing because last time we did this regime he felt fine for the first month...we figured we had at least until after Christmas until the side effects started. The good news is he felt great by Sunday and was up and out the door to duck hunt at 6:00am

We did take the snowtrain to Leavenworth and it started out fun and festive. They have the train all decorated, feed you breakfast and entertain you with Christmas musicians, carolers and magicians. There was not a single bit of snow over the mountains or in Leavenworth but the town was packed full of Christmas spirit. We had lunch of brautworst and saurkraut and did some shopping. Jon got tired after an hour or so and camped out in front of the fireplace of a nice hotel while Kelsey and I saw the sights. At dusk all of the many trees in the cental park were lit while a choir sang Silent Night. We made it back to the train by 5:00 and expected a nice, relaxing trip home...no such luck! We were delayed by some freight trains crossing our tracks and it took us 9 HOURS to get home. If felt like one of those disaster movies...I kept waiting for the terrorist or giant apes to attack! We didn't actually make it back to our house until 1:30 am. I was amazed when Jon actually got up at 5:30 for duck hunting.

Kelsey and I got a giant Douglas Fir at a lot in Bonney Lake. It's up, decorated and I made a few batches of Christmas cookies. Kristi, Elizabeth and her friend Marcus came over for dinner and we entertained oursleves with lots of funny Nichols stories...I'm not sure Marcus will ever come back!

Staci is flying in tonight to have her first visit with her new nephew. He is adorable and growing by leaps and bounds every week.