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Brain cancer is...  ...happy to be alive. Darrell invited Andi out for a lunch date today.  Accepted. Over pasta, we reflected on the year.  We'll spare you the details, but we concluded that 2018 could not have been any better. Here's to another year!

Brain cancer is...  ...happy to celebrate family and one more day of 2018. Although the above cupcake suggests otherwise, we had a happy day celebrating.  Here's the morning view, over the harbor:   Home so fast, here's the first pic of the brewery trifecta for Alex's birthday: Then Tiana won a couple games of hearts:  We enjoyed dinner and then sang Happy Birthday to Alex. What an awesome two-days-before 2019, Team D!

Brain cancer is... ...happy to be celebrating Christmas...again! Brady and Linda Guillaume hosted an epic Guillaume Christmas in Oxnard.  We think it went on a few hours longer than anyone expected.  Lucky us! Happy Holidays...some more...Team D!

Brain cancer is... ...picking up the mileage. Realizing that we need to get serious about our upcoming Super Bowl Stroll, we were back on track today, with 8 miles. We saw plenty of  impressive birds in Colorado, but it was fun to see this guy again today at the park.  Happy Friday, Friends!

Brain cancer is... ...happy about every part of our trip. Today we had a last great breakfast with Zach and Summer at Doug's Diner (everyone's favorite), toured Summer's campus (UNC, where she teaches as she studies for her PhD in Counseling Education), checked in plenty early at DEN, and then landed in LA. Temperature differences, morning to night?  Large!  Happiness levels?  Consistently high.  Here's the day, start to finish. Happy 30th Birthday, Alex. Everyone who knows you loves you.  Can't wait to build you a cake or somesing.

Brain cancer is... ...back from a day in the Rockies.   Zach and Summer took us up to Estes Park today.  The park is known as a base for  Rocky Mountain National Park.  We saw pronghorn prancing up the slopes.  We also saw our only snow for the trip.  It was stunning. Lunch at a lakeside lodge was a happy occasion.   Back down the mountain, we said goodbye to Mousse, in preparation for our departure, tomorrow.  What a trip! Here’s the day in a slideshow:

Brain cancer is... ...wishing everyone Merry Christmas!

Brain cancer is... ...happy, after a day of celebrations for Christmas Eve Three. Here’s the slideshow version of the third gift of Christmas Eve post Darrell’s diagnosis. Happy Everything, Team D! 

Brain cancer is... ...ready to celebrate Christmas with the Yoast Guillaumes. Although the holiday travel lines at LAX were long this morning, LuAnn, Darrell, and Andi had a smooth travel day that ended at...Summer and Zachary's house! Here are some pictures of the day that took us to the Yoast Guillaumes, launching the celebration of their first married couple Christmas.  Three generations of Colorado Christmas. We hope your roads took you in the right direction today, Team D! The Rockies, Coming into Denver Sumer and Zach's Pond, Frozen Now Reminder:  Greeley Has Big Skies. Greeley, from Above  After Dinner Conversations Lincoln Park, from the Sixth Floor

Brain cancer is... ...going forward toward Christmas. LuAnn, Darrell, and Andi enjoyed celebrating Melanie’s 50th birthday tonight in Laguna Beach.  Above Darrell points us forward on the way home. More Christmas adventures tomorrow. Ho Ho Ho!

Brain cancer is...  ...celebrating Christmas with our annual date. Tonight the Szabos joined us for Christmas Date (above).  We enjoyed our traditional Cat and the Custard Cup. The history of Christmas Date?  When our kids insisted on growing up and doing their own things, we started a new tradition.  Christmas Date is a fancy meal out, parents only.  ( Here's the link to the post for Christmas Date 2017, with a shout out to the first post-diagnosis Christmas Date, 2016.)  The light was low in the restaurant, so here's Christmas Date 2018 one more time.   Hurrah for another Christmas!  Hurrah for traditions!  Hurrah for friends! Bonus Content Today we Christmas shopped.  These guys acted like they knew each other. 

Andi typically arranges the crèches at our house during Christmas season.  Here's a typical Andi display, found on our living room coffee table this year: So much togetherness! So many sparkles! However, Darrell had free time and ran amok this year. Therefore, he arranged his own crèche. Brain cancer is... ...forcing baby Jesus and his people, including his newly delivered mother, to march. When questioned about his arrangement, Darrell responded, “Everyone is going forward.” Obviously. Darrell's Christmas March entails everyone going forward. Here's Darrell's Christmas Non March this evening. Here's to marching...and non marching.

Brain cancer is...  ...driving the getaway car. Above you see what it looks like to leave the last meeting of Andi's fall 2018 semester.  Drive, Darrell!  Drive, drive, drive! The grading is not quite finished.  And it's been an incredible--intense and incredible--semester with amazing students and beloved colleagues.  Andi looks forward to coming back in fall 2019.  But some "not working" is in order right about now. Bonus Content As of today, Darrell has two pairs of functional tennies... ...at the same time.  Huge news. Walk on, Team D.

Brain cancer is...  ...finished writing lunch love notes for several months. Darrell packed me a lunch for yesterday's presentation day, but I had no time to eat it.  Thus I did not find my love note until I unpacked my bag today.  Above you see the final lunch love note for the 2018-2019 academic year.  I call it mega note.  One famed Darrell saying is, "print is dead."  He's been saying it for approximately 25 years.  However, mega note disproves his hypothesis.  Print lives.  Also design lives.  Darrell actively made design choices to convey the significance of yesterday's events. He chose mega note, as you see, above. Need some perspective?  Here is mega note snuggling in with its sibling Fall 2018 lunch love notes. Print lives.

Brain cancer is...  ...celebrating bookends. Today Andi's 23 committed Master's degree candidates presented their projects before colleagues, family and friends. Kim Case (above left) and family were in the audience to watch McKenna Case (above center) present her work in Project Based Learning for English learners. The Case women are bookends in Andi's professorship.  Mom Kim was a student in Andi's first credential cohort, back in 1991.  Kim was a phenomenal student and great teacher.  She became department faculty long ago, and Andi applauded as Kim defended her doctoral dissertation in recent years.  Next semester Kim moves on to the position of Associate Dean in the College of Education. McKenna--Kim's daughter--presented her master's work today, the year that Andi retired. Darrell calls McKenna Andi's first (and only) "grand student."  Andi feels fortunate to have started and ended her CSUF professorship with the Case Girls.  Education world:...

Brain cancer is... ...a little spooked by events this holiday Sunday. Since when does Christmas season aim for scary?  Since today, apparently.  Let's take it in reverse chronological order. The last spooky thing today was this Christmas dragon: You may recall that dragons are Darrell's favorite animal.  However, dragons are truly not Christmas animals.  Sporting a Santa hat and gripping a candy cane in your mouth?  It just makes you scarier, Dude. And before the dragon tried to lure us in, Chris sent this spooky picture: We simply had no idea that not all skellies hibernate starting November 1.  This Santa Skelly opens a whole new world of scare potential in our daily lives. We were probably set on edge for this scary holiday Sunday by the Packers' score this morning: We've been protecting you, Team D, from the sad reality of the Packers' scary season.  Today we admit our fright to you, as we lost to the Bears and are at eight losses this season....

Brain cancer is... ...celebrating Curt’s birthday. The fun with Curt and Barb started last night with surprise Christmas carols and continued with a day at the Getty.  Here’s the video version: The fun is not over yet!

Brain cancer is...  ...controlling the kitchen real estate. When Andi entered the kitchen for some late night holiday cooking this evening, she asked, "Why are the cupboards bare?" Darrell, who has a flare for minimalism, chuckled deviously. They say that possession is nine-tenths of the law.  Fortunately there is only one week left in the semester.  Andi needs to reclaim some territory and venture into the kitchen more frequently. Happy Friday, Loved Ones.

Brain cancer is...  ...bringing the star again this year. Andi started to feel a little sad that we had no kid to put the star on the tree today.  But then we checked the blog and found last year's star bringer was...Darrell.  (Click here for the post if you like.  Very dramatic.) With all those lights and Darrell's arrays, it seems like a lot of electricity in one place.  Alex, what would the risk manager of a fraternity say?  "I don't know guys..." Worth it!

Brain cancer is...  ...giving "thumbs up" to wrapping up fall semester 2018. The photo, above, is not a selfie.  It's a picture of Darrell and Andi on camera using the video conferencing program Zoom.  Andi is about to click "end meeting for everyone," thus closing her final virtual office hour for CSUF candidates completing the CalTPA assessment.  With the TPA due  tomorrow night at 11:59, Andi is nearly finished with her fall 2018 TPA Coordinator responsibilities. Finals are next week, so this is the beginning of the end of a good semester.  Andi won't be back to CSUF until fall semester 2019. As Andi began to bring closure to the semester, Darrell continued making Christmas magic: Oh!  The holiday card line!  Wait.  We have a fireplace in the living room? Happy Wednesday, Friends!

Brain cancer is...  ...putting up the holiday lights.  Again. Team D, we recognize that many people have holidays other than Christmas, and we hope that any holiday that is yours is just what you hope. For us:  We love Christmas, and it's that time of year already.  Hooray! Somehow yesterday's news of GJ's recurrence heightens our recognition that Darrell has been granted another bonus Christmas.*  This is Christmas Three post diagnosis.  Just because we can, we share here links to the posts from... Christmas One (2016)   Christmas Two (2017) In the post for Christmas Two, Darrell admitted that, in cleaning up after Christmas One, he just threw lights in boxes because he thought he would not be here to deal with the mess when time came to put up the lights for Christmas Two. He wants you to know that, after Christmas Two, he was very careful to put away the lights in a highly organized fashion.  As a result, putting them up today for Christmas T...