Merry Christmas

Dear Friends,
We have had challenges that no one could have predicted. We have been stretched, strengthened, seen miracles, been exceedingly blessed, and continually amazed at our Saviors love for our little family. In a cynical world it is easy to replace 'lucky' for 'blessed'. We are not lucky. We are blessed far beyond what anyone can hope for or possibly dream of coming true.
Kris' recovery has been rapidly improvement since she was able to receive improved medical care. About eight weeks after her new treatment her paralysis was significantly reduced and restricted to a portion of her face, often she refers to this stage as her 'Quasimoto' look. The treatment caused major swelling throughout her body. Her commitment to nutrition and exercise has been a significant factor to her physical recovery. Now the paralysis is just slightly noticable. She still has difficulty smiling a full smile and closing her left eye, but these are minor concerns compared to the road she has traveled with the full body paralysis.
Our children have been blessed with health, ambition, determination, and energy. As parents, we have been schooled many times by them. The quick humor and creative thinking has left us stumped many times. Our advise to all parents of boys or girls two years old and up, keep 'desolve it' and 'Goo be gone' on hand at all times and near your first aid kit. These items will remedy most of your childhood emergencies.
Kris has tackled her deep fear of being a Mom of a girl. Kris can now add sewing, hair bows, and girlie things to her talent list. For Kris having a girl was a huge concern, knowing she would have one as 'unique' as she was. Katie has to been the most easy going mellow child. Now at fourteen months Katie is playing, walking and crawling, signing and talking, and always attempting to escape. While our tough army boys have turned into drama boys. We have a better understanding of what our parents have gone through. We appreciate our parents for letting us live to adulthood.
We truly love this time of year. For our family it is full of celebration with four birthdays(Grandma Beth-8th, Kris- 13th, Megan-23rd, and Parker-29th), Christmas Eve, Christmas, and New Years. With so many family birthday it helps us to teach our children about our Saviors birth. We offer each child four gifts for Christmas and stick to a budget. We have taken on several traditions of our childhood and incorporated them into our little family. Our kids look forward to the games, food, decorations, home made gifts, stories, and pictures. This is difficult to do with little ones being nearly eight, four, nearly three, and fourteen months. This is so worth it. Amazingly our oldest remembers these traditions from a few years ago when he was three and four years old.
We wish all of you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
Love, The Cederstroms
Sean , Kris, Parker, Alden, Brax, and Katie