Lots Going on These Days...

Well, as I said before, I've got a lot on my mind and I think it might be squishing what few marbles I had left in it, out! So to give my poor brain some room, let me put some of it down here for you. As every family this holiday season, we are busy with the hustle and bustle and all that comes with that. On top of that, our much respected coach Tigerville, as my girlies call him, resigned. Wow, nuff said there. However, there is a vital part of my holiday experience that is missing. There's a lot on my heart right now but I'll just hit the highlights. We all miss my dad more and more every day. I know you all thought this would be a happy post and it will be but I figure there might be a few of you who have been wondering how we are. Well, we're ok. Just ok! This process of grief is exhausting and mysterious to me. I think we've all come to the realization that Daddy is gone and the numbness is dwindling but now a wave of pain has come back over all of us recently. I do think it can be a healthy thing to feel pain and sadness but if you know me you know I'm a pretty controlled person. Not being able to control my mind or my feelings is somewhat disturbing to me. Don't get me wrong. We are functioning just fine and are enjoying the season as much as possible and do seem to be keeping our selves busy as you will see. But, I dread the fact that he is not here to share it all with us. I just want to be honest with you and say that although you might see me or read my posts or get my emails, I might seem just fine. However, I'm good at hiding my emotions so don't think I'm all healed up and moved on. If you've been through this you know but if you haven't there are no words to express what my heart and head are going through right now. All I can say is that more and more I am learning and realizing how amazing a man My Dad truly was. So, to honor him I will continue to enlighten you with our recent happenings and not dwell on the negative.
Last Monday night we all loaded into mom's van and went to the Pelham Christmas Tree lighting. It was really nice and a needed night out. They have several of the area school choirs and bands perform. Also, it is held at the Pelhan Civic Center which holds a nice Ice Skating rink. Students from the skating school performed and it was awesome. I did not get any pictures so all you get to see is the ornament they passed out to us all. It was a good way to kick the season off.

The very next night my sweet Clara Paige had her first real School performance. She and her Kindergarten classmates sang a bunch of Christmas songs. My camera wouldn't take very good pictures with the lighting but she is the one with the huge red bow on her head. She had a bad cough that night but she sang her little heart out!

While we waited, in the back of the lunchroom/auditorium we caught a cute picture of the twins waiting to see their sissy sing. They were so excited! Again, there was only one thing missing but I bet ya he saw it anyway.

Also, every year my grandmother would send my girls a Gingerbread house. We also lost her this year too so to keep up the tradition, Nana bought the girls one for us to actually put together. It was lots of fun and very sticky. I think we all did a pretty good job too. I hope to continue this tradition in my Grandmother's honor for my girls.

I would love to leave it on the kitchen table since it looked so festive and colorful there. But well, it is now missing it's cute little Christmas Tree b/c our resident food snatcher, Kelsey, thought it looked too good to miss out on and snatched it right off the table. So it now sits on the counter!

There's still lots going on and lots on my mind but I think I've filled your head full of enough sugarplums and such for now.