Best. Gift. Ever.

I've always wanted a brand new car for Christmas.  A beautiful new car.  Parked in the driveway.  With an obnoxious red bow draped over the top.  You know, the ones you only see in t.v. commercials during the holidays.  Think..."da na naaa na naaaa na na' na na naaa" (my attempt to put into words the Lexus December to Remember theme song!)  Yep, nothing could beat a brand new car for Christmas.  Or so I thought!

My gift this year wasn't parked in my driveway.  It wasn't under the tree.  It didn't come in a box (although my husband did give me the most amazing diamond earrings!!).  And there were no bows.  In fact, it was nothing you could even see...and that's what makes it so perfect!!!

The gift of being CANCER FREE!!  Whoa...it's still pretty crazy to say out loud.  Actually, I'm pretty sure it hasn't even sunken in yet.  The reason it's taken me so long to even blog about it is because I was afraid if I put it in writing, I would jinx it.  But the news is just so great, I finally had to share it with everyone.

The final pathology report confirmed that the residual cancer in my breast was minimal.  And of the 17 lymph nodes they removed from my right arm, only the two that they already knew about had cancer!!  The bad news-they removed all of the lymph nodes from my right arm.  Talk about pain!!  The recovery has been horrible and the risk of permanent swelling/numbness is much greater.  But the good news-the cancer had not spread beyond the initial two sentinel nodes!!

There are absolutely no words that can adequately describe the sense of relief, gratitude and pure joy that my family and I are feeling.  While we know I still have a long way to go, it simply doesn't get any better than this.

I hope your 2012 is filled with great health, family and friends.  (It's already started for me!)  But more importantly, I hope you always remember to never take a single minute for granted!