EBottema,
Hope you had a good Christmas day in spite of the pain, I know what you are going through from my own experience. Time is a thief, and it is shocking how fast events change in our lives. When my wife and I were young and most of our grandparents were still alive, holidays were tremendously stressful as we both wanted to continue our cherished family tradition of visiting the grandparents at Christmas. As with most teenage / early 20's couples, we were still kids in many ways.
On Christmas Eve we would have a mad dash from home to home to see everybody, inevitably it wound up in a knuckleheaded fight. I didn't realize how precious those times were, as the years passed so did our grandparents and now we have plenty of time on the holidays. I'd trade all of the peaceful hours for one more chance to get to get to see them all again.
Our traditions change as our families do, every generation faces that passing of the torch when the holiday celebration moves from the elderly grandparent's home to that of their middle aged (or older) kids, and in the blink of an eye it is time for THEIR kids to take over. It's a tough transition.
Fortunately there are some simple blessings thrown in there for us. One of the most amazing to me is that memories of years gone by have sharpened as I age, I can't remember where I put my truck keys yesterday but as the years pass my memories of Christmases gone by get sharper and I can remember my grandparents as vividly as if they were standing beside me.
Up into my mid 30's all the memories seemed to blur into a single jumbled scene, but now they are becoming much more distinct. A lot of the unimportant crapola has fallen by the wayside, but BOY I can remember those holidays. I can remember my Granny Rotenberry crocheting by her little open-flame heater and giving me a sack of Louis L'Amour westerns she had finished reading, and I can remember the smell of a hot butterscotch pie as my Grandma Ellis took it out of the ove, the bitingly cold wind as I walked along hand-in-hand with my Grandpa in the pasture with my Dad looking at the horses... . incredible how bright the memories are.
God has given us a huge gift, making our minds work this way. People hear that tired old saw "gone but not forgotten", but until the memories start sharpening you can't really appreciate what it means. As the years pass the memories sharpen until it seems in a very real sense as if the loved ones you have lost were with you just a moment ago, and the knowledge you will see them again on the other side is comforting beyond words.
Enjoy 'em while you can folks, and build as many good memories as you can.
Lisa & I barely managed to get the box out of the truck and into the basement slider.
Had a similar experience yesterday morning with a big trampoline that Santa brought to our younguns, the wife and I were up at dark-thirty moving it into the backyard using a little wagon to move it along, box was huge and very heavy. I was pulling the wagon, and wife was holding the box upright. As we pull off of the driveway, suddenly the box tilts over and falls forward onto the ground, brushing my shoulder on the way down. WHAMCLANGGGGGBOINGGG! Probably woke up half the county.
I just about soiled myself in surprise, and after the box made the 2nd bounce my wife alertly hollers "Look out!"
Ahhhh but I love her anyway :-laf :-laf
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