Strolling the Boardwalk and Exciting Luke News!

     This is the last of the Christmas/Disney posts. I hope I haven't bored you all to death! It has become a Christmas tradition for us to have an early dinner at Disney's Beach Club Resort. They have a wonderful seafood buffet that also has all of the "normal" Christmas items on it. Another reason we love to have our dinner here is that the resort has a beach and a lake, so a walk after dinner is a perfect ending to the day. This year, we noticed that the path of palm trees that leads from the Dolphin Hotel to the Swan Hotel had beautiful lighting. Much to our surprise, Christmas music started playing and the colors of the trees began to "dance" to the music. 

The Dolphin Hotel, is not a Disney Resort, but it connects

 to Disney property. The fountain outside is huge and so pretty. 

     The view of the Disney Boardwalk (which has a hotel, restaurants and shops) from the Beach Club Resort is gorgeous at night. You can walk all the way around the lake.  

They were showing movies on the beach, 

Disney movies of course!

     It was a beautiful Christmas evening. Temperatures were in the 70's, the sky was clear and it was the perfect ending to a perfect day. There are things I miss about being home for Christmas, but mostly I just miss the members of my family that aren't with me. As for the weather...I love it!

     This was my dessert plate from our dinner. I didn't eat every bite, but I ate enough that the walk wasn't just pleasant, it was necessary. The little dish with the caramel on top was Popcorn Panna Cotta. You can't see the custard layer below the caramel. It was amazing. I asked for the recipe and they are supposed to send it to me. They said that they pureed actual popcorn and strained it to flavor the custard. We all tried it because it sounded so strange and we all loved it. As for the rest of the meal...crab legs, shrimp, turkey, mashed potatoes, chowders, salads, standing rib roast and so on. Yes, I always gain weight when I go on vacation! 

     Now for the exciting Luke news. As his parents are saying, God, Luke and the donor are a great team. An important number for Luke is his ANC (absolute neutrophil count) number. The higher the number the better and his has been jumping by leaps and bounds the past week. It reached over 7000 yesterday. This means that the transplant is working and the best news is that if all goes as planned, today he "rings the survivor bell" at the hospital and gets released to the apartment they have rented nearby. He will still have restrictions and risks, he certainly isn't out of the woods, but it all is going very well and we pray that this amazing progress continues. Thank you for your continued prayers.