From Rachel

Happy Holidays from the Swenson's!
We hope you are all (near or far) having a great holiday season. We sure are. We had some encouraging news this week. Andy's surgery last November to fuse his back didn't actually work, and we were anxiously anticipating the inevitability of another surgery soon. But he had a CT scan done this week which revealed some bone growth taking place. It's not where it's supposed to be, and it's only a little bit, but it's a start. The surgeon he saw here in Utah explained that sometimes the body's immune system fights off the growth hormone for up to a year or so, and that delays the fusion process. So we are cautiously hopeful that the original surgery will work eventually after all. We just have to wait and see.
This Christmas time I'm thinking about all the wonderful things our family did for us last year when we were unemployed and far away. We had a very special Christmas thanks to your generosity.
We went to cut down a Christmas tree today and were rudely reminded of the differences between Utah Christmases and those in Wisconsin. First of all, it was fifty degrees and sunny out. My kids went in T-shirts! (Ian and Avery and I went shopping for Christmas ornaments a week ago. We spent a pleasant hour in the store, gathering our decorations and talking about Santa and Christmas carols and presents. We made our purchases and carried our sacks to the door - and were greeted by a blast of warm air. I feel like we're celebrating in Texas or something.) So of course there was no snow on which to slide the tree once we cut it down - and no need for a thermos of yummy hot chocolate. And then there were the sad specimens casually referred to as 'trees'. There was a lovely selection of overgrown bushes with long needles and double trunks, or sad, straggly things with more trunk than needles. Those were the expensive ones! We just left, defeated. We'll drag ourselves to a tree lot and buy someone else's handiwork...