Entertaining....

Getting in the spirit....

To One and All....

Have a Bear-y Merry Christmas!!!!

The Joyful Sounds of the Season...

You have to admit... this one makes you smile... :)

December 6, 1976....

A few months prior, my Mom caved in and Daddy bought me a puppy. Oh how I promised to take care of that puppy... train it... walk it... feed it....

Well, she was a very good puppy, except that she liked to get into the trash. The evening of the 5th Daddy warned me that if she got into the trash one more time he was going to put HER into a garbage bag!!!

With that he tucked me in and kissed me good night.

The next morning I woke up and nothing felt right.... Daddy had already left for work... Mom was up and about.... I went downstairs to check on my puppy... and sure enough... there she sat... up to her neck in a white garbage bag with a red pull tie gently tied in a bow.

I took her out of the bag and held her.... but something else just wasn't right.

I asked my mother's permission to stay home from school. I just didn't feel well. Couldn't say why... but I knew something was wrong. She let me.

I went back to bed tossing restlessly... it was mid morning and for some reason I got up to look out the window. With that I watched as my mother pulled into the driveway. There was no reason to suspect... but I knew.... before anyone told me.... without a doubt in my heart... I knew that Daddy had died.

December 6, 1976.

Although it was 33 years ago... on this day... I am 14 and wake to the familiar silence all over again as if it were yesterday. Some wounds/aches, no amount of time can heal....

This year, the day was blessed with a coating of snow... as the sun rose it warmed and melted the ice, but not before I could admire the early morning rays glinting off the branches.... Daddy would have been pleased with this day... and proud that Abbey doesn't get into the trash... at least not often.

Let it snow...

When the boys were born and each year since, at Christmas I would buy them a keepsake ornament. The forethought was that upon their wedding day I would give them their box of ornaments so that they would have a part of home to start their new life with, their first Christmas together.

It's always been a fun and exciting time each year to see what their ornaments looked like. And as we decorated the tree together each year, they would un-box and unwrap their treasures to hang upon the tree... and when the time came... they would re-wrap and re-box their ornaments to await another year.

One by one the boys went off to college leaving less of us at home to decorate the tree... until it came down to only me.... and then last year Aaron got married and his ornaments went to be with him. (Boy, was that a much tougher gift to wrap than I anticipated)

So with the boys' permission I now get to decorate the tree the way I like.... and I love snow!!!!

So each year my tree is covered with all sorts of snowflakes, icicles and snowballs....

And yesterday.... as I began to decorate my tree.... it began to snow... a wonderful heavy, wet, coat everything, bring the world to a halt with a hush...kind of snow...
it was delightful.