- - Saturday, December 27, 2003 Christmas Eve 2003 With everything in this world that changes, all the ups and downs, uncertainties, my heart tells me that christmas eve will always bring familiar faces and silly traditions that probably only we could understand. As a child, your mind & imagination is so infinite. You believe that the people you love will forever be near you, and it becomes your truth. Our family opens gifts on the 24th. My second christmas eve without one of the major pieces of the Shirshac family puzzle, and life still goes on. New traditions begin like a meloncholy dance - the same large white pillar candle with the maroon ribbon is lit in my grandmother's memory. We, I can't start Christmas without it being lit. Now don't stop reading, this entry is not meant to be despairing. I spent this happy night with my parents, my younger sister, my aunt Annie, and my grandfather. Each time I look at our christmas tree, with it's bulbs that have been made, broken/glued/then fixed, bought, and passed down from as far back as the ornaments that hung from my grandfather's tree. Years of history, of laughs, and triumph through hard times...a family album that just happens to smell like pine. I don't think about presents the way I used to. Because my grandmother was like a second mother to me, my christmas' make me wonder, with a year gone by, would I have made her proud of me. So much has happened this year, so much I would have given anything to share with her. I laugh to think of how hard I tried to please her, to make her proud, and she'd always remind me, "April, I'm proud of the person you've become, and whatever women you grow to be in the future." I realize I didn't have to try so hard, gran. The presents this year were exciting, but being with my family was all I could have asked for. Here's some snapshots:

posted by April @ 8:38 PM 0 Comments: Post a Comment << Home