Merry Christmas 2011

I feel privileged that I get to journal via a weblog. I've been able to express my feelings, good and bad and sometimes, I'm privileged to receive comments, many of them helpful and encouraging.

It is greatly appreciated.

This has been a tough year and Christmas always seems to bring it to attention. Why is that? Why can holidays be so complicated? It is, for Christians, a birthday party, after all.

This evening, Christmas eve, a friend invited our family over for Christmas Eve dinner. It was low key and delightful. Tomorrow we will be home all day and will have dinner with another family.

I feel very blessed tonight. And sad. I miss Bruce's brother, who died before the children were born. He was a joker, the one with a great sense of humor. And incidently, he was a drummer and trying to make it in the industry.

I miss my mother and father in law. They were kind, hardworking, good people. I miss their presence at holidays. I wish that we could call them for advice. I wish we could have spent more time with them.

I miss my brother who I will call Bently and I resent the disease of schizophrenia made it impossible for us to spend quality time together.

These are members of my family who have gone on before us. Their absence makes our time together even more precious. Their absence reminds me that there is something beyond time and memory and I am certain we will see each other again.

So, if you are reading this, I wish you a Merry Christmas. My family will be celebrating our Lord's Birthday together. And that will be the best present you can have.