Hello again!

Yes, I know! It has been a looonnngggg time since I last posted on my blog; too long. I am not even sure why. I guess I wasn't much up for blogging in December. The holidays were still a little difficult for me this year. In some ways even more difficult than last year. Talking with a few widow friends of mine I soon discovered that it is normal for the second year to be some what harder than the first. We are not in the same "fog" we were in last year, but, the reality of his absence is just that much more pronounced.

We did have a very nice holiday with family however. Due to the pending winter storm that was due to hit Christmas Eve and continue through the weekend, we packed in a rush and headed to my mother's Wednesday, a full 2 days earlier than planned.

Christmas Eve day was spent just relaxing and visiting with my mom. This is our 1st Christmas since Grandma died (my mom's mom) and I am glad we were there to spend the day. Later that evening we headed into Mass. The church was beautiful and the homily was great.

I usually do not give my children gifts until Epiphany Sunday (the 2nd Sunday after Christmas) but I did allow them to open one gift Christmas Eve. It really wasn't from me though, so I could justify it. Thanks to some VERY generous friends my kids were THRILLED with their Christmas Eve gift.

Yes, I made sure the anticipation had time to build. "Humor your mother and sit for a picture OR we don't open the present tonight " :) I need to use all the leverage I can at times.
Hmmm... do you think they liked it? I'm just not sure! What was so thrilling, you ask. Why, a Wii, of course. Now I have even more leverage for getting that schoolwork and chores finished!!

Thankfully we chose to head out of town when we did as the storm hit as predicted and I would have chosen to stay home.
It was, without a doubt, a white Christmas. Very beautiful, I might add. Of course, we had already safely arrived at our destination. If I had been forced to drive in it, or been stranded someplace I had not expected to be, I might have thought differently. But, like I said, we had already arrived, so Christmas morning the kids and I cranked up the CD with the song "Let It Snow" and we sang along!

That afternoon my older sister and her son and my younger sister, her husband and their 4 girls joined us for dinner and fun. After gifts we played Apples to Apples (bible edition) and Phase Ten. A few of the younger ones spent some time enjoying all the snow.

After our fun at Nana's, Saturday we headed out in the snow and drove to Grandma's house (Paul's mom) for another round of fun. Saturday we went to Mass with Grandma and back to her house for a wonderful dinner. Paul's brother, Tim, his wife, Jen, and their daughter Ava joined us and we had a nice evening visiting while the kids played. Sunday afternoon was spent at Julie (Paul's sister)and Richard's with the MN siblings and families, and Mom, of course.

Monday we finally left for home. We had originally thought we would leave Christmas day (Friday) and head home Sunday evening. Well, after leaving 2 days early and coming home one day later than planned, we were all glad to finally be home again. It is always fun to get away for awhile and we really enjoyed our time with family; but, there is something about coming home again!!