My Grandma passed away on Friday morning and it has just been a crazy time!
Friday night was the Christmas concert at Ellie's school and a little Christmas concert. Ellie had the honor of being chosen to be Mary and was super excited!
Months ago, my Dad's family had picked Saturday to be the day we would have our family Christmas party. We never realized that it would be the first without my grandmother. Despite everyone's grief, my grandmother's wish was that the whole family stay close together even after she was gone. Everyone felt like having the get together would be a special way to honor her memory.
We hosted the party. It was good to spend time together. The little kids were all cute and excited and were a good distraction. There were more smiles than tears.....but Grandma's presence was missed.
Sunday was a whirlwind that started with Mass, then Kate's birthday party at lunch time. It was supposed to be last weekend, but the stomach bug forced me to push it to this weekend. I didn't want to move it until after Christmas! I wanted Kate to feel special....even though I know she probably won't remember this birthday party!
I kept the party simple....just pizza and the awesome cake that Jay's mom made! It had 'Bot' from Kate's favorite show, "Umizoomi".
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| Kate loved her cake! |
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| So did her brother and cousins! |
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| She loved all her presents, too! |
We had a tiny bit of down time and then Jay and I headed to my Grandma's wake with the older kids. It went really well. We went out for dinner with my family afterwards and got home at 9:30. We.were.tired!
This morning we were up early to get ready for the funeral. It also went really well! The Mass was beautiful and our pastor gave a wonderful homily. The dinner afterwards was good, too. I want to share more about it...just not today.
I think Grandma was smiling, though!
Now, it is Christmas Eve Eve and I'm having a hard time switching the gears to get ready for Christmas. It's all a bit overwhelming.....understandably so! I know it will all work out. The only thing that really matters is that we are all together.
With everything going on, today will be my last blog post before Christmas. I hope you have a beautiful and blessed and peaceful Christmas with your families. Losing my Grandma so close to Christmas, I know that I will cherish and appreciate our family time even more than I usually do! These are the memories that make up who our families are......even the moments of spilled drinks, burned cookies, and meltdowns from over tired and sugared up toddlers. Those can be just as memorable as the excited smiles, hugs and cheesecake!
Have a very Merry Christmas!
