christmas festivities (yes I am posting this in February)

Confession: Christmas used to make me as excited as a four year old who still believes in Santa. The music would send me over the moon, the decorations would awe me, and I would journal about how wonderful it felt to walk into my mom's or grandparent's homes.  I don't know when my Christmas spirit waned, but perhaps it was around the time that I started grad school and December meant finals and papers. I'm not sure.

All of that said, this was a GREAT Christmas (and also a strange Christmas)!  There are not many perks to working within education, but one perk is DEFINITELY getting to take a full two weeks off work. While I was still in Winston-Salem, I enjoyed ALL of the Winston Christmas traditions: Old Salem Candle Tea, the Nutcracker at Stevens Center (best one EVER), and caroling in Old Salem Square. So fun!

with some of my Winston faves at the Candle Tea
Once I got home to Charlotte, my wonderful mom treated me to a manicure and peppermint pedicure! We spent a day shopping for my christmas gift of clothes at the outlets in Blowing Rock, and picked up my brother from Applachian State. I helped her with her annual piano recital (60 students now!).  We attended her church's Christmas Eve service. In the midst of the fun, there was also some sadness this Christmas. My dad and his wife had planned for weeks to be Charlotte (from Pennsylvania). If you recall my past blogs, his wife has been paralyzed for 9 months now from a Lupus attack. Sadly, once they arrived in Charlotte for Christmas, she experienced a horrific infection and spent almost two weeks in the hospital. AWFUL. Awful for her, awful for my dad, and awful for her 20 year old daughter. So as we divided our time between our dad and our mom, our time with Dad and Sonia was spent in a hospital room.  It was absolutely heartbreaking, but we made the most of it....including a Christmas Eve dinner of McDonald's, ha. I have a newfound respect for the doctors and nurses who have to work over the holidays each year. You also better believe that I made sure that there weren't any patients on the hall who did not have a family with them!! Sonia and my dad are back safely in Pennsylvania now, and she is slowly healing.

All of my grandparents live in the same town, and so Christmas part two is spent between both sets of family.  Hectic and busy, but absolutely wonderful!  My brothers and I rotated between my mom's mom and my dad's parents equally, and I soaked in every minute. I have always lived my life fully aware that those we love will not always be with us (no matter the age). I wouldn't trade my Christmas schedule for anything in the world. What we didn't know at the time is that this would be the last Christmas with our Gramps. Looking back, the moments we had with him during this Christmas will be treasured forever. Even my college-age brother spent a little extra time with him this Christmas, and I am so glad that he did. I owe my precious Gramps a blog entry later. When I can find the words, I will definitely write it.

Here are some of my favorite Christmas pictures!
my mama's christmas table
my Weesie taking in the loudness that is our family gathering, ha!
the cousins with our Weesie! 
one of my favorite places....my dad's parents' kitchen. this is the last picture we have of Gramps. (tears)

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