Christmas letter 2012

Here is a link to this year's Christmas card insert.Writing these acts as a kind of 'mile-post' in our year... and here we are again! Pads having returned to school for 2 hours a week, we’re not expecting a repeat of the massive pile of birthday cards from his year group. After the unexpected success of a bowling night for Padi and his Brain Tumour Support Group in last December, we arranged for him to have a birthday party bowling with some school friends. It was momentous to see him staggering around with a heavy ball and scoring pretty well! This year, the Dreams and Wishes charity is helping us do the same. We had a really Happy Christmas and New Year 2011, with family and friends but then the ‘January blues’ set in. In the New Year there didn’t seem to be anything left to aim for it had all been done - sometimes not much point even in getting out of bed. So new plans had to be made: whilst we were re-learning to live a day at a time, it became clear we also need to be looking forward to things. It wasn’t easy to encourage Padi to get up and dressed in the cold months of winter but, in February, a weeks holiday in Bluebells gave us all a lift. When we got back, James, a trainee psychologist, began to visit regularly for a chat and they really hit off: they were able to talk about the importance of getting out. In March, this was boosted by a string of decisions and ideas which resulted in getting a motobility car, far more luxurious than anything we’ve had before. All except Mike immediately cruised up to Inverness to visit the ‘MacFarlane Darlins’. In February Daniel Morgan Davies was born (somewhat traumatically) to Hannah and Mark, another thing Padi had been hoping to be around for. Also at that time Mike mentioned to Padi how much he had enjoyed the Ellen McArthur Trust Sailing holiday and had wanted to go again, now was the time to start aiming for it! The other day Ellen McArthur have been on the phone again, asking about next year and all we can say is that he’s keen. The brochure came through yesterday and he's decided to go for the dinghy experience because it is less likely to require him to get up early than the 'round the Island race'!
We're glad to report that the occasional break-through pain Pads has been mentioning, since we lowered the patch at half-term, has subsided. He's only needed paracetamol recently to ease a mild cold.