A Blessed Christmas Season to You

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas! As a Catholic, we have the Christmas season…so we are still celebrating. When I last posted, I was pretty bummed. We weren’t sure Tim was going to make it home at all. He was one of the casualties of the great Southwest Airlines breakdown. Luckily, Rich found another flight a day later from another airport on another airline. Tim ended up taking off at midnight from San Francisco and landed here in Omaha at 5 a.m. on Christmas Day. Rich picked him up and brought him home where they both went back to bed until about 10:30. We are so very thankful he was able to come home. We have a lot of friends whose children did not get to make it home at all between the bad roads, the frigid temperatures, and the airline craziness this year. My heart goes out to you all especially. Starting at noon on Christmas Day, the doorbell kept ringing as friends of Joe’s came by to say hello and spend some time with us during our first Christmas without Joe. His best friend, Zac, was up here with his family and they all came by to smile and laugh, and talk about the crazy adventures Zac and Joe had in high school and college. James, another good friend of Joe’s from Bellevue West High School, was also in town on break from med school. It was so nice to spend some time with him as well, as he lives on the east coast now. Tanner and his wife, Megan, and 5 month old daughter, Sugar Donuts (Charlie), also stopped by. It is always so fun to watch them parent….as I know Joe and Michelle would have been top notch parents as well, so I live vicariously through watching them. So the whole day was spent standing in the kitchen eating goodies, catching up, and also remembering Joe. What wasn’t there was Joe’s laugh….he would have been laughing the whole time and had everyone else laughing alongside him. He sure is missed. This is our last Christmas in this house…with memories of Christmases with Joe and Michelle and their dogs in the mix. It is kind of an end of a chapter in my life’s book. That reality is kind of hard but I am trying to look forward to making new memories wherever we end up.

I wanted to share a few photos. We went to Christmas Eve Mass at 4 p.m. and I was a lector for the first time in over 3 years. It was nice to participate in Mass again. I am also on the schedule for Eucharistic Minister of Holy Communion as well. That has been good, too. We always take a family photo on Christmas Eve after Mass, so this is the 2022 version. We’ll have to take a photo of us with Tim before he leaves. I honestly haven’t taken one photo…phone or otherwise over the last several days. I also wanted to share with you what one of my best friends sent me for Christmas. I made a cairn (rock pile) to represent our family when I was walking the cliffs of Moher in Ireland in August. She took that photo I took and put scripture to it and had it printed on a ceramic tile. It was just such a very thoughtful gesture and I appreciate it so very much.

I am still supposed to be taking it easy for the next week to insure my stitches don’t tear, pull or anything else that sounds awful. I am going stir crazy though, so it has finally managed to hit freezing here today (32 fun filled degrees) so we are going for a walk. I know Tallinn will appreciate it as well. Thinking about a trip to the zoo tomorrow with the kids and Rich. I would really love that. Other than that, I have been losing spectacularly in all board games as is my M.O. I actually bought some new board games this year in the hopes that I will have a fighting chance. We shall see. Sending love and warm thoughts to you all this season.