I have made it through my first holiday without Neal with the help of my family. Anticipating it was worse than going through it. Thanksgiving dinner was nice at Neal’s brother’s house with his parents and part of his sister’s family. Neal’s empty spot at the table wasn’t as obvious there than it would have been if I hosted. The rest of the weekend we kept very busy. Friday the kids, my sister and I went to the tree farm we have gone to for years to get our Christmas tree.
Saturday we cleaned out our garage!
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| Before |
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| Part of the work crew |
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| After 🙂 |
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| Eli, Caleb, Corbin & Lane |
We also made some Christmas cut out cookies and played lots of games. I also really enjoyed having the grandsons here. They added laughter and joy.
The hardest part of the weekend was putting the Christmas ornaments on the tree tonight. Karsten and Collin put theirs on but I could only add a few of mine and Neal’s. There were some ornaments that said “First Christmas together”, “10th Christmas together,” and many from special vacations. Too painful to have out.
Grant, Jenni and boys left yesterday afternoon. Britton, Michelle and their boys left last night. Whitney, Ty and Karsten left later this afternoon. It’s just Collin and I again. The house is quiet.
This picture gives our thoughts regarding how cancer has affected our family this holiday season:
On the journey,
Trish