Last night was Christmas Eve. We celebrate the Eve with Tommy’s family and Christmas Day with my family. It’s been this way for as long as we’ve been together so it works out well. This is the first Christmas without my dad. I miss him terribly. There were times I would be out shopping and come across something I would’ve bought for my dad and it hit me right in the stomach that he’s not with us anymore. It stinks to be perfectly honest. It’s hard to believe that last year was our last Christmas with him. Everyone I talk to who’s lost a parent says that Christmas is so hard without that person. That made me feel better in a weird way. That I’m not alone in missing him and feeling that horrible void.
I finished last minute shopping this morning and managed to wrap everything and put the gifts under the tree. Impressive IMO. I’m also knee deep in my second bachelors nursing class. “Current Trends in Nursing” or something like that. It’s interesting, a paper every week yayyy…said no one ever.
We opened our gifts here this morning and it looks like everyone is very happy! I’m so glad. I gave my mom one of her gifts to open at her house this morning. It’s a bracelet with a hanging tag that’s engraved with “Love, Walter” in my father’s handwriting. She loves it and we both cried this morning on the phone. In a way it felt good to cry and get it out after holding it in all season. My mom was also blessed with a visit from a red cardinal. They say when that kind of bird visits you it’s a visitor from heaven coming to see you when you need it most. I couldn’t think of a better time for her to receive a visitor.
Merry Christmas!
Menay O; mom to 4, Christian and thrift shopper on the side... 