Merry Christmas, everyone!  Our Christmas at my mom and dad's house was wonderful (though different).  Because of all the construction going on (and the fact that everyone is existing in about three rooms of the house) Santa and his elves decided to leave all the presents in the (heated) attached garage.  Those little stinkers even set up the Christmas tree after the kids had gone to sleep!  There was a moment of panic though--the kids came out in the morning ready  to see an avalanche of presents and instead saw...nothing.  But Santa was nice enough to leave detour signs that rerouted them to the garage. 

While there were tons of presents given and received, the BEST present ever was having our Sam back!  Sam gave Heath and I these beautiful bracelets with the Lord's prayer on them and all three of us started to sob---we were so close at one point to never being a threesome in this life again.  What a blessing! 

And, of course, Sam made out like a bandit (I guess after everything he's been through, he deserves it.)  Santa gave him the new xbox 360 (thanks to help from a little eBay elf named Rob Boyes), plus a ton of other cool and funny presents (including a sword from his girl, Liz--sounds strange, but Sam really likes to hang swords on his wall).  He also got the best t-shirt from my parents--it is a Monty Python shirt that says, "It's only a flesh wound" (morbid and disturbing, yet strangely funny). 

So, all in all, it was a wonderful holiday, made even more so by the gorgeous presence of my brother.    And thank you so much to all the people that have been so supportive (in too many ways to name).  That was another gift our family received this year--the kindness of so many thousands of people (some that we didn't even know before the accident).  The world is truly full of angels.

So please hug those people you love and let the little things go...and have a wonderful holiday with your families and friends! And know that the Howells, Wolfs, Boyes, Jessops, Driscolls, etc...are forever grateful for all the love and kindness shown during such a horrible and miraculous year.

Love, Bec and the rest of Sam's fam