Life has a way of keeping your priorities in order. While we were getting the Holiday season off to a warm start, we got news that another of Taylor’s friends at clinic lost her battle with cancer. Allie endured surgical burdens, terrible physical trauma and horrifying repetitive cycles of chemotherapy but in the end she found peace and happiness in a far better place. Nothing will replace Allie’s smiling face or impish grin in the hallways of Columbia. She fought and passed with fierce determination and true dignity. Knowing she is pain free and in the hands of a loving God makes it possible to be happy when we see her empty chair in clinic even as we miss her company and friendship. She is in a better place. Say a prayer for Allie and her family.

I think that watching the lives of other patients has some positive effects on Taylor as well. She launched into this year’s Christmas season like nothing we have ever seen. She was determined that every tradition would be observed and every opportunity taken to celebrate. Not a minute was squandered. We cut down our own tree again. Yes that means we traveled an hour and 20 minutes to get to the wilderness so we could tramp through the cold up and down the hills to find a tree at the farthest point from the car so that we could cut it down, drag it back, tie it to the roof and drive it home for 20% more than the perfectly formed and cheaper tree down the street at the local nursery.

We also did the Radio City Christmas Show, made a gingerbread house, did the advent wreath and decorated the outside of the house in a perfectly garish way. Christmas was wonderful, homespun and simple in the end.

We spent the post Christmas season in Nevis and had a blast. Our fragile little cancer patient went banana boating, water skiing, knee boarding, windsurfing, and sailing while she was there. She sat still once but no one remembers when.

tay-bandz is full steam ahead in ’06. On March 4th, Grand Master Byung Min Kim is sponsoring a Tae Kwon Doe kick-a-thon to raise funds for tay-bandz and pediatric cancer research. The kids are getting donation at 10 cents per kick. They are expected to make at least 1000 kicks each!! Email us if you would like to sponsor a kid at taybandz@aol.com. Thank you for your continuing support and thank you Grand Master Kim!!

Tales will be in the March issue of American Girl Magazine to raise awareness of pediatric cancer. Look her up!

Lance Armstrong has added Tales to his “Survivors Site” with an interview and pictures. Check her out!! You to the Lance Armstrong Foundation site and click on “survivors” You have no idea how nice it is to hear her described as a survivor!!

And how about this? A very talented student and new friend of ours, Zach Kornfeld, created a promotional video for us to use when we do fund raising. The video is really well done and can be found on the internet at the link, HTTP://69.28.71.25/taylor_matthews.wmv . Thank You Zach!!!!!

But the best news we can share with you is that Tales made it through another set of scans with flying colors!!! We are now 22 months in remission and she has been moved to 4 month scans from 3. Trust me the difference between 3 scans per year and 4 scans per year is huge. You’ll get a kick out of the whole scene. The doctors began to describe the results and got to a part where they saw some unhappy things they didn’t understand and wanted to review further but they asked us not to be too concerned. Tales looked up from her Tetris game on the computer, heard the suggestion not to be too concerned and went right back to playing. While we waited patiently for news from the doctors, Tales went for a run!! Apparently she handles these things better than Mom and Dad. Sure enough they decided it was nothing to worry about! Just another day.