A Wonderful Christmas

I had a wonderful Christmas with my daughter and son-in-law coming down and surprising me on Christmas Eve, with Alex and Lia and my other granddaughter and her family that live about 45 minutes away.

I wasn’t sure what to expect or how I would handle Christmas, it was the day Rich and I met 59 years ago. I had the same feelings in July when my daughter and son-in-law went with me to Cherokee NC to celebrate our would be 57th wedding anniversary and Rich’s 78th birthday. I was a mess until Chris and I launched a little memorial boat in the stream where Rich and I always went. It was there that we received a message from Rich as the little boat kept circling around us.

The four days in Cherokee were like the beginning of my healing process of grief as the past four months had been like a roller coaster and train wreck mixed together. Chris, Bryon and myself all felt Rich’s presence in so many ways. The blue butterflies were around us everyday and everywhere we went. As we sent Rich’s memorial canoe down stream, it circled around us in the water twice before it floated away. It was like he was telling us for the final time, “I’ll see you later and everyone is going to be okay.” I had my angel wings tattoo done on Rich’s birthday, he has been telling me for years to get them but I thought it would be too painful. I felt nothing because I had Rich by my side in spirit. I definitely needed this trip to relive all our beautiful Cherokee memories from the past years. Rich loved the mountains and this will be a trip I will take as needed.

The next three months I stayed busy in the yard finishing landscaping, cutting bushes, laying down rock borders and block pathways. I called it a labor of love and it made me happy to see how well everything was going together.

Christmas Approaching

I had a few bad times, lots of tears when memories would pop up and now with Christmas approaching I could fell the anxiety building again. I wanted to drive up to Virginia to be with my daughter for a few days since her birthday is Christmas day but she mentioned Bryon’s son was coming over so I stopped thinking of going up.

The Sunday before Christmas, Chris called and asked if the BnB room was available for five! When they come down here or I go up there, we say we’re going to a BnB as a joke. She always has a tray of goodies in my room to welcome me and Snowball and I do the same for them and their 3 fur babies. I added each of their favorite candies to their pillow and stocked the upstairs mini fridge with their favorite snacks. I even made a guest book for them to leave a message about their stay. They had been planning on coming down all along but wanted to surprise me but when I mentioned about maybe driving up she thought, what if we both try to surprise the other and we pass on the highway somewhere between the 400 mile trip? I was so excited and couldn’t wait to see them on Christmas Eve. I ran to the store and got birthday decorations and a cake.

Meanwhile I made a big batch of meatballs and cooked a turkey breast on Monday plus some Italian cookies and sprinkled gold dust on them. What a great last minute Christmas surprise to find out that Chris and Bryon were coming down instead of their original plan to come down in January to celebrate a grandson’s birthday with a late Christmas!

Chris, Bryon, their two dogs and a cat arrived Tuesday about 5pm. We had her birthday party and she loved her gift of a photo of her and I from Cherokee with the blue butterfly that was around us the entire trip. I was taking selfies and she photo bombed me in this one so it was perfect to add the butterfly to the background since this is where he was following us around. We all knew it was Rich’s spirit. My FB friend and her husband make these beautiful photos on slate!

Some may remember I couldn’t put up a tree this year, I thought it would be too painful since it was our special day. But Lia has a year round tree in her Princess room and she changed out the ornaments to Christmas ones. Christmas morning came and I walked downstairs to see the tree in Lia’s playroom lit up and filled with presents and smiling faces. There were tears but again happy tears because I know Rich was watching over us on this special day. I’m so happy that Lia once again changed my mind. The two crocheted angels were made by my neighbor’s niece, the white one is for Rich.

Alex, Lia, Chris, Bryon and I had a wonderful Christmas dinner of meatballs and turkey. We set a place for Pop at the head of the table with his “Pop” cup. I know he was watching over us all.

The following day we went to my granddaughter Allison to celebrate Christmas with her family, another great day. This was Toren’s first Christmas, our 12th great grandbaby. He was born a few months ago and while both his grandfather (Alli’s dad) and his great grandfather (Pop) passed away this year, they both live on with Toren since the all have the same middle name of Allan.

As Rich always said, it’s not goodbye, it’s we’ll see you later. What a wonderful week I had with Bryon and Chris. After Christmas, when everything settled down I felt peace, the same as when I was in Cherokee and Rich’s spirit circled around us. I handled Christmas very well considering but the biggest reason was because my daughter was with me. Chris is becoming more like my mother, always checking on me, making sure I’m eating and sleeping, reminding me to check my BP and just always being there if even just a phone call away. Pop would be so proud and I know he was with us all this Christmas.