Saturday, December 25, 2004, 3 pm MST

Greetings from the Phillips household, and Merry Christmas! This was my best Christmas ever! The time from Thanksgiving to Christmas has always been precious to me, and definitely my favorite time of year. This year held special reasons why this was so. In addition to celebrating that the Lord Jesus came to earth in the form of a baby to eventually die for our sins and be raised again so we could have a relationship with God, the Creator of all things, but Julian also came home the day after Thanksgiving and we have been getting to know him in the home setting which has been wonderful!

Marzipan, Almond Thumbprint Cookies, Peanut Blossom Cookies, Barbequed Chicken and Pumpkin Pie, pancake breakfast with Lyle’s Golden Syrup and Maple Cream…these were tastes of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day (today) at the Phillips household on Apple Valley Road. Never mind that breakfast didn’t get “served” until 11:00 am, and the kettle we put on for the pot of tea we were planning on having around 10:00 am cooled, was re-boiled, cooled, was re-boiled, cooled and was re-boiled until we could finally pull it together to actually put it in the teapot! Newborn babies are so entertaining, and it is truly a new language to learn trying to ascertain what their needs are at the moment! Our morning went like this…wake up, change and feed the little Bub, pull our the wizzy new video camera that a donation from friends was able to purchase, take a video of Julian, take more video of Julian, change him again, feed him again, lay him down, change him (he has a wicked diaper rash right now!) Whew!

Lights, tree, presents, gigantic stuffed tiger and an Indiana Jones Box set from Costco...these were the sights of Christmas.

KOZY 101.1 playing nonstop Christmas music…these were the sounds (oh yes, and the sound of silence as our water system sprang a leak and Dave rushed out to the well to see what was the matter…Home Depot aint open on Christmas Day, but Dave managed to fix the leak anyway).

Other sounds were cooing and gurgling and laughing, by Julian, David AND Stacy. We were having regular conversations with the little guy, who has now discovered his hand full force, which he likes to insert into his mouth on a regular basis. He also likes sitting in front of the Christmas tree in his bouncy chair inserted into his bassinet. What a sweetie!

Julian got his vaccinations on Monday, the normal “2 month” vaccinations which meant he got five shots in his thighs. He was not a happy camper, neither were his parents who were “on edge” for the next 4 days waiting to see if he would be one of the babies who gets high fevers or seizure-like episodes as a result of the vaccinations. Praise God, he was fine! We kept the baby Tylenol (which the hospital claims is a miracle-drug for babies!) going for the first 24-48 hours.

Julian did NOT get his labs this week, he is getting them on Monday and we hope to see the Creatinine down below 2. I’m shooting for under 1.5 myself, that would be the most awesomest Christmas present ever! We are still praying for full healing in BOTH kidneys. We were going to get his labs done on Thursday last, but the temperature in and around Denver was around 5 degrees for the high and we didn’t want to take him out in that. It will be in the 50’s on Monday, which will be much better.

Julian slept last night from 6:00 pm until midnight, and then until 4:30 and then until 7:30, so we think we are getting close to him sleeping through the night. I guess you could say he DID sleep through the night, if you consider the 6:00 pm to midnight stretch..that is six whole hours in a row! Now if Dave and I will just go to bed at 6:00 pm everyone would get plenty of rest.

Thanks for praying, once again! We will try to do the updates once a week, and I will try and commit to do it during the weekend sometime by each Monday morning there should be a new update.

Stacy