Saturday, January 5, 2019

Happy 2019

I returned to school/work this week. The principal said, "How was your Christmas?"  I replied truthfully, "There were a lot of happy moments."  And there were.  There was a lot of sad moments as well.
Two sets of precious cousins, a set on Mom's and a set on Daddy's side lost a loved one over the holidays.  Aunt Tish and I headed to Corbin  the Thursday after Christmas for a visit with Ailene, still at that time in hospice care.  Hard to see her that way, but wonderful to see her children that I spent so much time with when Mom went home to Papaw's throughout my childhood.  I was blessed with so many cousins my age.  After our visit with Ailene, I then got to visit with another favorite cousin and hold her first grandgirl, seven days old- be still my heart.  Then Friday's funeral, to say good-bye to a precious son gone too soon and see still more cousins.  Bless their hearts, Christmas will never be the same.
We slid into the parking lot at 6:59 from the funeral to attend Laurie Lou's wedding.  What a joy it was to see her on two legs, after her health scare in the fall.

I've come to the conclusion that I am simply not of this generation.  When I love someone, my aim is to love them forever more and never want to give them up.  It seems we no longer operate that way.  I have a friend who is always sort of surprised that we are still friends.  She was a military kid and in adulthood has lived lot of different places.  She told me once that she thought friends were for a reason and season, then they go and more come along.  I was completely flabbergasted to learn that anyone thought that when I thought every relationship was for the long haul.  Now I see I am certainly the strange one.  This year will bring a new paradigm shift in our little family, as the Captain and Ceece will bring new ones into our circle.  Will the circle remain, or shift to a different configuration?  That remains to be seen I guess.

 I always want the whole Norman Rockwell picture.

The picture of 2018 is going to look like one of huge losses to me it appears.

But, thankfully, there are other pictures.

Back to Christmas, after my visit to the cemetery and church with Rae and family, Aunt Tish and Jordan cooked up something marvelous for us for dinner on Christmas Eve.



Next up, he Captain somehow came to be in possession of more tickets than he needed at the Palace, so Drummer Boy, Bean, Ceece and I  went to Tyler Childers last Sunday night. He sings a song called, "Follow You to Virgie," about a mamaw that listened to them and loved them.  It is a teary one for sure. Ceece joined me in my moment of Mom remembering while he sang about laying to rest this mountain beauty, the one the Lord called home.  Later in the week, Drummer Boy surprised with an audio of he and Gwen on guitar and violin singing.  So sweet.  It is simply "all that" to me to be able to enjoy music across many generations.

New Year's Eve found us in Meijer for poppers.


Then off to see Mary Poppins which we all loved.


 New Year's Day is Noella's birthday, so we celebrated her and the day.



I think the sing along at Mom's funeral prompted us all to think about keeping it up.  Rae bought Mr. Smiley a ukulele and is picking up some tunes herself. 

Bean shared today that he is gong to play the Star Spangled Banner at a swim meet coming up.


I told Ceece I had to have a picture of this as we've never had a team shirt with one of our kids names on the back.  Wow.  This kid. Today he swam in four events and came in 2nd, to  a senior from his school all four times.  We're still asking ourselves where this came from?


My wish is for a happy and healthy New Year for all.