Hello everyone.  I hope that all of you had a great holidays with your families.  Obviously this was a different year as we navigated the Thanksgiving through Christmas season for the first time without Angie.  I knew this was probably going to be one of the most difficult times for us due to this being her favorite time of the year and this was the anniversary of the last times she was feeling good and completely herself.  There were a couple of tough spots, especially Christmas decorating specifically the Christmas tree decorations and what to do with her stocking, and Christmas Eve that we celebrated in Naperville when I was getting everything set out.   The whole Christmas season was a lot of stress as I wanted to make it as perfect as possible.  Didnt want to slip up in any part of it so put pressure on myself for that.  Happy to say that everything went as good as could have been expected.  We had so much fun together and talked about her often. Throughout the whole month, we kept ourselves very busy.  The basketball teams for each of the kids that I coach continued to dominate, Luke and Ali doing well with their club teams (Luke in basketball and Ali in swimming), School, Scouts events, Christmas activities like Polar Express, Let it Be Christmas, Christmas lights nights, etc.  During Christmas, we were surrounded by love, family, and friends with making stops in Kansas City, Naperville, Chicago, and Iowa.  I believe all of this helped in a lot of ways as we kept living and making memories as a family.  Even Santa came up with an idea for her stocking.  Santa put under her stocking a tin Christmas basket that was filled with items that were to be shared together as we did things together on Christmas- a box of popcorn to eat while watching our movies; ice cream sundae toppings- fudge, caramel, sprinkles, and Oreos so we would eat a sundae on Christmas; card game; etc.  This will probably happen going forward.  We lived a Christmas season that she would have been very proud of, and I couldnt be more proud of that.  

Also over the last couple of months, I was able to turn the Caring Bridge site into a hardcover book for people to have. I found out that the website could be downloaded into a PDF that included all the pictures and comments.  After a lot of trial and error with different publishers and PDFs, I was able to have it published through Amazon (Thank you Amazon!). It is titled Angie Strong: The Story of Angie's Life During Her Fight.  I am very happy with how it turned out.  It was quite interesting to see the kids read the book.  It really blew their minds that Daddy wrote all of these pages since they didnt know I was doing the blog.  It is available for purchase on Amazon and can be found by searching for Angie Strong or in the link below.  Thank you for all of your support.  

https://smile.amazon.com/Angie-Strong-Story-Angies-During/dp/B09MD4NDX6/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1R9UW7JSG6MZW&keywords=angie+strong&qid=1641943037&sprefix=angie+strong%2Caps%2C197&sr=8-1

Love you all!  Angie Strong Forever!