Christmas will be celebrated differently in many homes this year. In our home it will be just Jack and me and Arnold of course! All the gifts are bought and will soon be wrapped and ready to be delivered or picked up by my family. We will follow the "better safe than sorry" rule. This weekend would usually have been our Christmas gathering with my siblings, nieces, nephews, and all the kiddos that go along with our group. We would pack the car full of gifts, food, the silly "white elephant" gifts for our annual game we play as a family. The Christmas CD's would play on the drive out, especially my favorite John Denver and the Muppets Christmas one! (don't judge me please!) In the past we would arrive at Mom's and see her smiling face, smell the delicious food she and my sister prepared and hug and talk for hours! Jack would then head up for a nap while we did the talking! I have many fond memories of trips to the shopping center by Mom's. A trip to our new favorite place...a resale shop that I always find something I can't pass up! This year none of that will happen. Mom is gone and Covid is not so all celebrating with a huge family gathering is cancelled. I know I'll connect with my family this year. Phone calls, video chats, etc. Our youngest, Jordan, is in California with his new job and we miss him and I feel bad he will spend Christmas totally alone this year. Yep, many things are different. So we'll sit here and enjoy our cozy, warm home and the decorations that tell us it's Christmas. We'll listen to the songs of the season and remember our Savior's birth is the real reason for the season. We'll count our blessings. Yes, even with all that's happened this year we have had many blessings come our way. I'm just going to show a few pics of celebrations past and pray for a better one next year.
8 comments:
Hi, YaYa!
I very much appreciated these glimpses at Christmas celebrations past. Over the years the camera's eye captured and preserved all those magic moments at happy family gatherings. This Christmas, the Christmas of 2020, a year of great challenge, adversity, loss and disappointment, those pictures and the myriad memories they evoke have become all the more precious. I have been with you the better part of a decade, and it seems like most of these images are being posted for the first time. I could be wrong about that, but I don't remember seeing them before. It is bittersweet to see your dear mother looking young and fit as a fiddle as she enjoys the holidays with her loved ones. That is the way I will always remember her. It warms my heart to see the picture of you and Midge as children beneath a shot of the loving sisters as adults posing in front of a tall Yule tree. I know you wish you could turn back time and be there again in those wonderful moments. I find that when I am filled with sadness, my heart aching over the loss of family members, there comes a joy, a sweet joy, and a deep appreciation that I was once blessed with people so dear to me and the happy times we spent together. Time cannot erase what you experienced, what you felt and still feel. You will always have these pictures to remind you of all those merry Christmases with your mom and your wonderful family.
It is always good to have the memories, and realize that, although it has been challenging, there are still blessings to be had and lessons to be learned. Hope you have a wonderful holiday. It will just be Charly, Josh and I here at our home this year, but that's OK. We feel blessed to have each other and the knowledge that God is in control. Thanks for this post and have a great week!
Yes I know exactly how you feel and I do remember all my blessings nightly. It has helped me get though until we can all meet again. This by far has been the hardest period of this covid as we are lucky and know of no one who has had it or passed from it. I miss family and friends and it feels like forever until I will see them again.
Cathy
Loved the pictures from the past and here it will be just Sherry & I. YES it is good to be safe than sorry. We just heard of one more friend passing with the virus and another very sick. WE do miss family groups and have had some since the virus hit, but not this Christmas.
Love from Florida
Sherry & jack
It's sad that so many older couples will be spending Christmas alone this year but we are never alone anyway, Jesus is always present. Like you said, Jesus is the reason for the season. I know how difficult it is not to have your mom with you this Christmas.
Thanks for sharing such sweet memories. I was thinking of doing the same thing as you by sharing memories of Christmas past.
Stay safe and well.
Hugs, Julia
Beautiful photos and precious memories. Mothers are the glue, it seems, that hold a whole family together and the first holidays after they pass are the most difficult and bittersweet. My poor mother will spend Christmas alone in a tiny room in an assisted living facility not understanding where she is or why she is alone. That's what hurts the most for me. I can only pray that I'll be able to see her again before she passes. Hold tight to those memories and let them warm you from the inside. Hugs ~Robin~
Great photos of your mom and family. I wont be seeing my family this Christmas either and at least mom will have a nice dinner at her church with the nuns who she is in contact with more than I. Hopefully next year we all will be able to gather again with friends and family. Janice
Great pictures of past Christmas celebrations! It is a special day like you said to celebrate Jesus' birth, even if it is in small immediate family gatherings :)
betty
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