All The Snaudrey That's Fit To Print.

Carruthers Christmas 2006

Our Christmas this year was like no other. It's funny how the holidays seem to punctuate major transitions in life with a big exclamation mark. Our family has seen so much change over the last two years, and nothing reiterates that like Christmas. Having lost two significant loved ones in 2005, we still feel the loss more deeply at times when we know we would have been together. But while other changes are good ones, they still require adjustments and new ways of doing things. My brother is now married. My parents now live in NS 80% of the time. I live somewhere different. My brother and sister-in-law would be spending the 24th-26th with her family. I had to work the 24th, 25th and 26th. My parents didn't get home in December at all until the 23rd, and so there was no time for decorating the house or setting up a tree there. Given these various factors, we planned to do our Christmas at my place on the 27th.

I was out shopping with Dad on the 23rd when he told me that there was a snag. Tim & Aneke had to work on the 27th and couldn't get out of it. Dad absolutely had to be back in NS for work on the 28th...he was pushing it to take the 27th off. Right there, in Mark's Work Warehouse, I could have cried. "So we'll plan to eat our turkey dinner early in the evening on the 27th and then open gifts afterwards...?" He says. I think to myself, what other option do we have?

I'll be honest. I was having quite the pity party on the morning of Christmas Eve. I was missing Carter & Grandad. I was angry that I had to work. Mom & Dad were planning to go to Fredericton the next day to visit with Grammy & Grampy but I couldn't go because of my schedule. My adopted family upstairs was heading out of town so I was going to be in a quiet house for 3 days. And the only time that my family could possibly carve out to spend all together was a few hours in the evening, two days after Christmas.

Then, suddenly, another family crossed my mind. A family who suffered a tragic loss this year. They likely had all kinds of time to spend together, but how difficult it would be, missing the one who was now gone, so unexpectedly. My tears of self-pity were replaced by tears of empathy. I offered a prayer of solace for this family, and a prayer of gratitude for my own.

So the following days were different, but good. When I wasn't working, I was spending time with Mom & Dad, at their place and mine. They didn't end up going to F'ton on the 25th. We visited back and forth with the north end Carruthers (aka Jenn & parents). It was quite nice. Usually, there's so much busy-ness and stress leading up to the date, and then you're tired and a little strung out and everything is over before you know it. We had a couple days after the hectic preparations but before the festivities where we had not much to do but relax together when I wasn't at work.

The 27th was nice. It snowed, so no one else in the area had a White Christmas, but we did! While the turkey was cooking, we dug out home videos of Christmases 3-4 years ago, which we'd never watched before. Seeing Carter & Grandad on video, we so missed them but yet enjoyed the memories and it almost made it feel like we spent this Christmas with them. We had our turkey, opened our gifts, and laughed so much...I don't know when was the last time I'd laughed so hard.

I would never have planned it to be that way, but if I could go back, I wouldn't change a thing. (Well, I might have had us start a couple hours earlier so that we would have had time for dessert after the gifts.) It was perfect.

posted by sibbie751 @ 1:08 a.m.