Nothing Like Family

I believe this and so should everyone.  There is no greater gift on earth than good family and I got to spend most of the Christmas holidays with most of them.  

Christmas had come close to being meaningless to me before this year.  I've loved being able to send most of the last 20 Christmas seasons with the wonderful people at 3W but it can't compare with spending it with family, especially when there are young children also there.

It really wore me out this year with family festivities but it was like balm to the soul knowing I was where I was supposed to be at Christmas and that was with my family.  The only flaw was that Shelley, John, Lisette, Danny, Nicole, Sam, and Jake weren't able to be with us.  Then my life would really have been Christmas complete!  Hopefully we'll all be together next year.

Well, it's over and now the finish packing for Florida begins.  My winter will be spent mainly with friends but I will be able to see Shelley more often before coming back home in the spring.  I know how lucky I am that almost all of my family lives close to me because so many families have all the children move thousands of miles away from home and they're not able to see them often.  There are also disfunctional families where some relatives can't get along with each other even for Christmas dinner.  I am forever thankful that isn't the case in my family.

I'm going to take down the tree (which has been such a lovely reminder every day that Christmas is a wondrous season) and vacuum.  Big jobs for the day!  I have loved every moment spent here this past year but I'm very happy to be spending 3 months of winter in Florida, too.  It's the best of both worlds and it will be a little sad for me when Florida becomes only a memory but I've had a good run and I'm grateful for that.

Every time I'm around my girls, my grandchildren, and my grandchildren, I think in amazement how Dennis and I did well with our lives.  Every one of our progeny is a decent human being despite some of our failings.  We did good, Dennis!