Christmas wishes for a full and good life

It's 9 degrees outside and that is exactly what I wished for! I hope all of you are having a wonderful Christmas morning/day with your family. We had an early Christmas yesterday morning with Jack and Davis and despite the incredible excitement they both had over opening all their gifts, Davis said "Christmas isn't about the treats, it's about GIVING and family time and SHARING"! I think then he and Jack headed into the garage to drive their new remote cars into each other, but he obviously got the message that much of the world forgets this time of year. 5-year old logic rules all, once again.




To say the past few months have flown by is an understatement and I won't even attempt to recall or capture everything that has occured in the weeks behind me. Work for many reasons these past months was way busier than expected and I have pushed the limits a bit too far to deal with some client deadlines - one of my 2012 resolutions is to ensure I manage a better balance. Despite that I have been doing all kinds of wonderful things outside of work.

October's highlights included a quick trip to NYC to attend my third Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre's Transplant Survivor Celebration, where I got to catch up with my amazing doctors and give them a first hand look at their fantastic research results. While my portal to the universe Elaine's restaurant is closed now after Elaine's passing a year ago, mom and I managed to catch up with many of our old friends from there thanks to Facebook keeping us connected. When we returned, later that week I was honoured to attend the launch party of Calgary's Avenue magazine "Top 40 under 40" as I was named to the 2011 class. You can check out the article and all the 39 other honourees online.



http://www.avenuecalgary.com/top-40-under-40/tricia-antonini



My friend Michelle nominated me and I was surprised out of 350 nominees that I was included in the group - but what it does speak of is hope. 5 years before the launch party, in October 2006, I had just learned to swallow, breath, walk and go to the bathroom on my own following weeks in ICU after surviving flesh eating disease, and although I was stable, the threat of the leukemia was imminent after having treatment interrupted so quickly after it had started. No one could have convinced me that I would survive let alone get back to work, voluntering and have my story in a magazine 5 years later. So the article reminds you once again that anything is possible.




November included attending a number of charity events - anchored by Tasha's Rethink Breast Cancer Boobyball, which was one of the best and most successful yet in raising funds for supporting young breast cancer patients while they fight the disease. I also managed to fit in a quick trip to see Dr. Aung after over a year and a half gap, which always gives me a boost of energy and joy.




December has been full of fun (in between lots of work!) not just because of our holiday party at work. My cousin Brant who lives in LA and works in the reality TV arena, discovered my addiction (or devotion) to the reality Series Survivor and managed to get 4 tickets for me and my 3 fellow "Survivor pool powerchicks" (Julie, Laura, Shannon - friends from work) to attend the live finale show at CBS studios in LA. Seeing Brant, his wife Juliana and their kids, my cousin Shawn, my aunt and uncle Marcia and Dennis on the Friday night was such an awesome bonus. It was a fantastic Hollywood weekend, complete with premium restaurant experiences, celebrity spotting, Chateau Marmont accomodation, limo pick up and laughing with friends and family. And showing the show's creator Mark Burnett our famous "Survivor plaque" with the name of each season's pool winner engraved on it, and explaining the 23 blank spots showed how long we thought the show would continue ("Wouldn't that be nice" was his response) was also fun. I love LA!




Last night mom, dad and I enjoyed delicious appetizers at Tasha's with her brother Chad and mom and dad Birthe and Jerry, laughing ourselves silly while playing the "present game". This morning we talked to Jack and Davis who were playing air hockey with their Dad after having a visit from Santa.



And on Saturday, I will escape to paradise with mom and dad to meet Colleen, Allan, Grady and Joelle for New Year's Eve in Maui, followed by a couple weeks of sun and relaxation. Life is good. Life is full. Wishing you all a full and good life. Cheers.


Tricia

Thanks for the layers

Giving thanks is certainly not an annual holiday for me. Each day I am appreciative of so much and have many moments where I am nearly overwhelmed by my good fortune - my health, my incredible family, supportive friends, my career and coworkers, my stability, living in Canada, ability to travel and see things...the list goes on an on. The past month and a half was overflowing with experiences and moments that were so amazing. From a trip to Vegas with girlfriends including a helicopter tour of the Grand Canyon (the only photo permissable to share), to Lighting the Night twice with friends, family, family of family including a host of energetic kids, to attending multiple other charity events with a variety of insprational speakers, to celebrating my big brother's 40th birthday, to enjoying turkey, ham and delicious salads and desserts with over a dozen (or 2?)aunts, uncles, cousins and children of cousins, living life lately has been a Thanksgiving zone itself.



And while it is so true that everything lately has been wonderful - even my health with a good visit to the bone marrow clinic and no need to return for 6 months, as well as finally getting hearing aids for both ears and finding out what the world ACTUALLY sounds like - I will share with you that I have just finished a very "flat" week - emotionally, physically, mentally. Very rarely do I feel this cloudy and exhausting greyness envelope me for no apparent reason, where my outlook on anything is not my usual positive, but rather just about everything is annoying, frustrating and tiring. Aside from the fatigue usually the physical affect of this is limited, but this week it was worse than ever, more like a storm than a cloud. And when I feel like this, I am further frustrated by the awareness that I am in that cloudy state, and have really no direct reason to feel that way (as the story above and pictures below confirm) and that further ticks me off. I decided to share this with everyone after talking to my cousin Amy who was very unhappy to hear how I was feeling but also commented that it was helpful to know that I am not ALWAYS positive (as no one is). I am happy to report that yesterday the grey really started to exit and it is pretty darn sunny again. I suppose that what is also important about these little storms and clouds, as I expect everyone can relate to, is that without them we wouldn't know what the sun really feels like. It's just another layer of life to experience, to have context as to what the other layers are really made of. So I am thankful for the layers.



Now a glimpse of the incredible last month and a half - I think the pictures really do the talking ....Cheers and Thanks, Tricia

A friend and cooworker Yvette and I were amazed by both the helicopter ride and the Grand Canyon itself...two life list items checked at once!

Elisabet (Ellie) Tricia Rose Gustafson, my cousin Holly's daughter, 5, shows off her Light the Night shirt - she had the most donors on our Saskatoon Tricia's Trotter's team. She also managed to bring with her as walking support Ed, Deanie (grandparents), Jamie, Holly (parents), Heather (aunt), Eddie, Mia, Lui, Beata (siblings) - all driving up from Regina - as well as her mom's cousins Rhea, Rhett and their spouses and kids, and her great aunt Shirley from Saskatoon!

The other Antonini twins, my cousins Jessica and Nick (Hanging with their grandma) also made the trip from Regina with mom Bonnie. My cousin Jenna-Lee and friend Becky also survived the drive up and it was great to see everyone. Jessica masterfully interpretted my speech at LTN 2010 about all of us being canvasses and that a potent life looks a little like a Jackson Pollock, and created our unbelievable banner to carry as we walked through the leaves along the river in Saskatoon on September 17, 2011.

Talyn and James are all bundled up for the Calgary LTN which was a lot colder - James' Dad is happy he's got a Starbucks to keep warm. My friends Michelle and Doug layered up little Morgan and Alex (who I think is looking down for the tiny flashlights my Dad discovered were being handed out).

Tricia's Trotters included Mom and Dad, my aunt Mary Ellen, uncle Marty and his partner Karen, Tasha and Talyn, friends Jamie, Laura and their son James, friends Doug, Michelle and their kids Alex and Morgan, friend Trevor with his dog Huxley (as a Whippet, our pace was terribly slow for him), friend (and former fellow LLS board member) Jim, coworkers Yvette and Julie, friends Neil with sons Andy and Alex (his wife Em, a leukemia survivor, signed up but had their baby girl Vivienne a few days prior to the walk!) Between Calgary and Saskatoon and PwC, Tricia's Trotters raised over $8,000 - truly remarkable. And there is still the Vancouver walk coming up this week!

He graciously declined the giant moose hat and singing at Montana's, but my brother couldn't avoid the paper version with his 2 little "deer" on either side. We had a really fun family dinner to celebrate his 40th on Oct 4, including a guy doing balloon super heros that Jack (spiderman) and Davis (incredible hulk) were thrilled with (actually all of us were mezmerized). Happy birthday big brother - wishing you an exceptional 40th year.