I just received the Napastyle Holiday catalog that's full of things that are not Christmas related, as well as ones that are. Always love looking at the catalog (and Michael Chiarello, he's so cute and young) order very little but it's not one I get every week, like some of them. I could spend big bucks on things I don't need or have a place for.

Remember what Readinglady said when her Dad passed away on Thanksgiving: "Nothing is lost, it is simply unseen". Thank you for that poem, this first Christmas without Dad or Stepdad was very different. We didn't even try to make things the same, we started some new traditions, as difficult as it was. Elery got a Santa Claus suit and came as Santa, enthralling all the little kids, that's going to be a new Christmas tradition we keep, I think. Dad would have loved telling the kids how the reindeer were down at his hayfeeder, but I'm sure he was just sitting and chuckling anyway. Annie

Thanks for your thoughtfulness leogirl. Christmas was tough but we managed to have a beautiful and loving get together. My brother in law passed out framed pictures of my nephew to each and everyone of us with a beautiful memory poem attached. The pictures were all different and funny, saying they know "Peter is happy knowing he can still make us smile" o:) My husband is still extremely sad but I can see he is realizing he needs to try and resume his normal activities. My brother in law and his wife are still just going thought the motions that they have to, and have been in contact with MADD and getting a lot of outside support for there family. I think we all have a long road to hoe as the trial and all the legal crap will soon begin. I do count my blessings that we are close enough to offer all the support we can. I wrote my sister in law a letter on Christmas to let her know my feelings, it's amazing what you can put down in words to lift your spirits. Thank you all again for letting me ramble on here!! I wish that no one has to go through this kind of grieving.

I miss my mother and dad and my brothers and sister. I am the only one left. My siblings were grown when I was born. I regret that I never got to know them very well. I grew up with a niece and nephew my age, and they were as close as a brother and sister, but they have also passed. I also had a very good friend that shared all of my interests...horses, waterlilies, koi, and going to flea markets. She moved to Tennessee and died about 10 years ago. I miss Kenneth. I took care of him the last 8 years of his life, and he has already been gone almost 10 years. We were friends for 24 years, and a very interesting person. I learned a lot from him. After my dad died in 1968, our family more or less fell apart. My nephew joined the Navy and my niece moved to west Texas to be a nanny. (Years later I found out she was pregnant, and I think she moved into the family that adopted her baby. She never came home after that...and I only saw her once, a few years before she died. She died at only 50 yrs old.) My mother quit cooking when my dad died. So we no longer had Christmas or Thanksgiving at her house because she started going to my brother's house. My sister, who had a very difficult life, due to some bad choices she made, was sort of the black sheep of the family, so they never invited her....she wouldn't have gone anyway, and neither were we, which was good because I would've had to make an excuse why we couldn't make it. As my mother got older, she liked to stir up trouble and it caused a rift. She seemed oblivious to it all, and continued until she got quite old, and then she relied on me to take care of her. Anyway, I wish I had tried harder to be close to her.