Remembering

This was taken a couple of years ago! My sister in law, Penny, and nephew Matthew and I went Christmas shopping and we got our picture taken with Santa. It was so much fun! It had been years since I had my picture taken with Santa!! lol. How I wish we could have a Christmas shopping trip together this year!!! The memories are wonderful!!! I remember for years it was a yearly tradition for Penny (and whatever child was youngest at that time), myself and my mom would meet at Moxies at Chinook Centre for breakfast, we would talk and laugh so much it was easy to lose track of time!! We would sit by the big fireplace in there and eat, talk and laugh until we cried!! lol. Then we would go shop and still talk and laugh until we cried (most of the time at poor mom's expense but she loved it). Then we would go have lunch and do much of the same as we did at breakfast!!! Then we would shop a bit more and then it was time to go home!! It was awesome and I so miss those times but will treasure the memories forever!!! :)

I am feeling very sentimental these days with the holidays coming and decorating my house and getting ready to go help dad with his tree!! Missing my mom a lot as well as my brother Bill, Penny and all the kids. I miss my oldest son Tim too but he is coming for Christmas so I am excited about that!!! He should arrive Dec. 22 or 23rd and then he will leave to go back to Calgary Dec. 27th. It's a short visit but it will be great to be able to hug him!!! :)

We are also missing Peter's mom June as she has gone away for a few months to visit her family in Ontario and then spend Christmas with her daughter, Melissa and her family in Moosejaw. She will be home in January sometime though and we will have a Christmas with her when she comes home.........which by the way means...............THAT I GET TO LEAVE MY STUFF UP UNTIL SHE COMES HOME!!! :) Woohoo.........I am excited about that!!!!

This is not only our first Christmas without my mom but it's also our first Christmas without Peter's dad as well. Doc passed away six days before my mother did in May so it's been a rough year for us. Doc will also be forever remembered and charished!!! He was a wonderful, funny, loving man!!! The nice thing about all this is that my family and Peter's family have known each other for years and been friends for years so we are all experiencing this together! It's been great to have each other as support knowing we all loved the same people and are grieving and missing the same ones! We will get through it and we will remember them both always!!!

Here's to fond memories, cherished times together and to family!!!!! I love you all so much!!!!! xoxoxoxo

The Christmas Season and all that I will deal with

Well, it's finally November and while I am at work today, my hunny is taking in the Christmas stuff from the shed to the house so it's in there for when I get home!! I will go through it and see what I need to get for this year and start putting up my decorations!!! :)  Peter is going to go through the lights and stuff for outside and see what light bulbs he needs to replace and start putting up the decorations outside. We are a little concerned about doing our yard as the other night we had some of our Halloween decorations from outside stolen by a couple of teenagers. The RCMP caught them and we got our stuff back but now we are nervous having our Christmas stuff outside. :( I think it's really sad when you have to be concerned about decorating for any holiday because some stupid kid who doesn't have anything better to do might come along and steal your stuff or wreck it. It really makes me angry actually!!!! Last year on Christmas morning, YES you read correctly, CHRISTMAS MORNING.....someone stole our mechanical deer from out in the front yard. We went to bed at about 2 am and got up at 6 am on Christmas morning as I had to go to work and noticed that the deer and three of our lighted Candy Canes were missing from the display!! We never did find those and so Peter is going to try and figure out a way that we can have our stuff up and hopefully no one will be able to get at it and steal it or destroy it.

Jeff is over helping his grandpa put up lights and decorations in his yard today too!! Our whole family is like this!!! We love this time of year and just can't help ourselves!!! And, in two weeks we will be putting up dad's Christmas tree. That will be both a happy time and a sad time!!! This is the first Christmas without my mom and so we are going to go over and help my dad set up his tree and decorate it!!! I am sure there will be smiles and laughs and tears as well. All the memories and just the fact that she isn't here to do it too will be hard and happy at the same time. We were in Canadian Tire yesterday and we saw this house that you press the button and the trees change colors and it plays Silent Night (which was one of mom's favorite Christmas songs) and I started crying in the store because I miss her and because I knew that she would have loved that house!!! I might go and buy it because I loved it too and because I would have bought it for her!!! I am very glad that I moved out here when I did and that I got to spend all that time with her before all this happened and that I got one more Christmas with her (last year)!!! I will cherish that forever!!!

I miss you mom and love you very much!!!