Tuesday, January 1, 2008

Family Time

Our family celebrated Christmas together on Saturday, December 29th this year. We wanted to wait until everyone was here and Andrew, Jennifer and the kids couldn't be here until Friday night. Everyone had a great time and my grandchildren had many lessons in sharing. It is hard when you are two and four years old to know that you can't open everyone's gifts and especially your cousin's gift. Seriously, they did excellent. They played very well together and it was a fun time for everyone. After the gift exchange we had our Christmas dinner together, with turkey and all of the fixin's. The girls helped to clean up the kitchen, then we decided to try something that none of us had been able to do yet and that was watch our home videos from when the boys were babies. This may sound like it shouldn't be that big of a deal, but watching pictures of their dad and hearing his voice brought back all sorts of memories. We all wish things were different but they are not and we will work to move ahead and make the best of a dark situation. We all considered this a part of the healing process and we were happy to see that we were successful in keeping ourselves together in viewing these videos. We reminisced and discussed some of the names Steve used to call us. Names such as "flame", "sir minus", "gomer pile", "Andy don't" and the list goes on. There is a history behind each nickname and without these videos we may have forgotten about some of them. We watched the boys all ice skating with the Arnold boys and just seeing who could go the fastest and scrape the most ice, pictures of their first birthday party, and saw lots of people who are no longer with us. Grandma and Grandpa Baughey were in a lot of these pictures. Fun times, for sure! Christmas this year was the best since Steve died (almost 7 years ago) and this has been one happy mom.

5 comments:

tacomom said...

So glad you had a good Christmas and that you were able to work in the home videos. Christmas was quite different this year without my parents but I can't imagine it w/out a spouse. We went back to church for the first time since Dad passed away and it was difficult but we made it. The Newport's (new pastors) seem to be wonderful people. I felt like I'd known her all my life.

Cheryl Watters said...

I knew your parents when I was just a teenager. Fine folks! I am sorry to know you lost them this year, but they are rejoicing around the throne for their first Christmas in Heaven. What a blessed time they must all be having up there! I can not imagine losing my parents. Losing a spouse has been extremely hard but the Lord has helped me. Thanks for the note.

Unknown said...

These are some good pictures of the kids and their mates. I'm so glad that you all had a nice Christmas this year together. It's always fun to have the family in and share memories!

Grammy said...

I am so glad that you had a good Christmas! The pictures turned out great of your family! Maybe sometime Dad and I can come over and view these home videos. We sure lost a great son-in-law when Steve went to Heaven! It's wonderful to know that we can be together again when we gather around the Throne. What a reunion we will have!

Cheryl Watters said...

Mom - I'd love for you to share in these videos. Sure brings back lots of great memories. What a hope we have to meet Steve once again! Glad you figured out how to leave a message on my blog. Love ya!