Tonight's picture was taken in March of 2009. Mattie was going through his chicken tender and french fry phase. When I say a phase, it was a very short time period as Mattie's tastes and food needs changed practically week to week. So for example one week he would want nothing else but chicken tenders and then the following week, he neither wanted to see or smell a chicken tender. Because Mattie lost an incredible amount of weight on treatment, we felt Mattie could have anything he wanted to eat. We just were motivated to see him eating something. The somethings ranged from Utz potato chips (he would eat NO other brand), vanilla shakes, shrimp (of all things!), Dunkin Donuts (vanilla frosted with rainbow sprinkles), and cupcakes. There are a lot of people hung up on nutrition while undergoing treatment. As you can see nutrition and a balanced diet were not even on my top ten list for Mattie. As the number one priority was getting him to consume any sort of calorie we could get into him.
Quote of the day: The best philanthropy is not just about giving money but giving leadership. The best philanthropists bring the gifts that made them successful—the drive, the determination, the refusal to accept that something can't be done if it needs to be—into their philanthropy. ~ Tony Blair
Several years ago, we learned that a Christmas Tree Shops came to Waldorf, MD. It takes us about 50 minutes to drive to this store each way, but it is our yearly ritual.
The Christmas Tree Shops is a discount home-goods chain offering seasonal decor year-round, plus furniture, kitchen items, and gifts. This is where Peter and I find all the the filler items for our raffle baskets. Not to mention the actual baskets. You can't believe how much you can buy there at a reasonable price. Which is why we make the venture every year.
Typically we go on this adventure in April. But we are trying to do everything a bit earlier this year, so I am not scrambling in April into May. As it takes a lot of planning and leg work to make the Walk a reality.
These passes will provide the recipients with a magical experience of visiting all of Disney's theme parks in ONE DAY: the Magic Kingdom® Park, Epcot®, Disney's Hollywood Studios®, and Disney's Animal Kingdom®. They may not be used for admission from December 25-31 of any year, through their expiration date (which is in two years).
When I was visiting my parents in Los Angeles, I literally bought Disney items at the airport to add to this basket. As Anaheim, CA is the home of Disneyland. So this basket is turning out to be very cute and I hope there will be ticket takers, since the price of these four tickets to Disney are worth around $700!
1 comment:
Vicki, I love seeing & hearing about the basket preparations. I am so psyched once again for the walk on May 20th. I believe MMCCF will do very well again this year. I am excited to be planning my participation with TEAM KIMBER who truly believed psychosocial support was so important. It guided her in her nursing skills. She could work with kids, earn their trust, get their cooperation by always acknowledging how hard this all was for them & telling them she believed, they could do it - swallow the many pills, get the shot, get accessed. Kimber worked to know each chikd which is why we became friends. We both knew the importance of knowing a child/teen as they were not as just a patient with Cancer.
I AM LOOKING SO FORWARD TO MATTIE's walk and honoring the memory of my friend who understood chemo alone isn't enough
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