Our Fabulous Thanksgiving Week- We're Truly Blessed

Hi gang-

I trust that everyone had a great Thanksgiving.  We had non-stop fun.  Dear friend, Chris arrived on Wednesday morning.  The 3 of us hopped in my car and went to Crystal's Trip.  Wendy and Bubs met us there for beers.  As I was designated driver, I limited myself to 2.

As I refused to cook anything until Thursday, the 3 of us went to Yo Yo's Mexican Restaurant and loaded up on great food.

Got home around 4 pm.  I got busy in the kitchen with prep-work for the feast while the boys shot pool.  Joe and Ping arrived around 6pm.  We had a fun evening of pool, darts, catching up.... basically whooping it up.

Dom cooked breakfast for the gang on Thursday morning.  (he's a wonderful help to me on holidays!)  I banished everyone from my kitchen and got cooking:

*22# Turkey.... cooked ala Martha Stewart ... cheesecloth, wine and butter
*Cornbread, cranberry, sausage and pecan stuffing
*Mashed Potatoes and gravy
*Carmelized Balsamic Pearl Onions
*Corn Pudding
*Lima Beans
*Sweet Potato/Pecan Casserole
*Spinach/Arthichoke Casserole
*Store bought Pecan Pie and Pumpkin Pie
*Butter Pecan and Vanilla Ice Cream
*Beaujolais Nouveau
*Bubbly

I stayed in the kitchen sipping on wine and cooking all day.  The others did a little target shooting.  I'm fond of the picture of Ping shooting.... you can see the smoking gun!

Had dinner by candlelight with The Nutcracker and Johan Strauss playing.  Very festive.  Alot of fun.  Ended the night in the hot tub for awhile.

Everyone left on Friday morning.  Yours truly did not even get out of bed until after noon.  SERENITY NOW!

Had a lazy weekend.  Wendy and Bubs came over for a day of pool, darts and beer on Sunday.

Got our wonderful call from Tulane Cancer Center..... Dom continues to be in Complete Remission/Response ..... 28 months post Stem Cell Transplant!

Last night, our Saints demolished Eli Manning and his NY Giants.  GREAT GAME.  GREAT WEEK. 

GREAT to get back to normal!

Umbilical Cord Blood Stem Cells: Prime Source for Transplants and Future Regenerative Medicine

The 5th ITERA Life-Sciences Consortium Symposium took place in Maastricht, the Netherlands, and showcased the progress of stem cell research and promising therapeutic applications. Thanks to solid scientific data, researchers confirmed that umbilical cord blood stem cells are one of the prime sources to be used in current stem cell transplants, ongoing research and future regenerative medicine.

Cord blood is one of the prime sources for stem cells, more and more used for stem cell transplants

Jump To Story.... 

Dom Continues to be in Complete Remission/Response..... YAY!!!!!!

Just hung up the phone with Tulane Cancer Center.

His latest M-Spike test showed ZERO..... he's now been clean for 28 months!!!!  Modern medicine is marvelous, isn't it?

Bone marrow cancer hope as scientists identify gene that increases risk by 30 per cent

Related to last evening's post:
  
*Relatives of those suffering from multiple myeloma are four times more likely to develop cancerous cells  

*First time genes responsible for the disease have been identified


 MORE HERE

Scientists identify first genetic link to myeloma

 Although we've been convinced that Dominic's MM was a result of Agent Orange exposure in Vietnam, this was interesting.... we live in amazing times, gang.... best of luck to all of you!

"Rather than identifying who will or won't develop the disease, the researchers hope that the study will help to identify drug targets or further information about the disease's causes."

Good read here:   http://info.cancerresearchuk.org/news/archive/cancernews/2011-11-27-Scientists-identify-first-genetic-link-to-myeloma