I’m in awe of my friends from Minnesota

We’ve been snowed in for a couple of days. It will melt over the next couple of days, but just being inside this long has made me stir crazy. It is beautiful outside, but super cold for Mississippi. I think of my friends from Minnesota and Saskatchewan and wonder just how they do it? We fuss like there’s no tomorrow if it gets cold for more than a day, yet they live with this and worse for months on end! Helps put things into perspective. Thank you, Lord for this lovely place where we live, and I pray for all the folks who DON’T have what they need to survive in this weather. Help me to be a little more thankful and a little less spoiled!

Year B is riding the struggle bus

I am on the struggle bus this week. Last weekend I ran to Birmingham for an overnight trip to check on our condo, which is now getting ready to be put on the market. Our tenants, who were international students from Saudi Arabia, moved back to their country. We decided to sell instead of rent again. They have been renting for four years, and we feel like we are ready to get rid of the condo now.

I ran over on Friday to check out the condo (code for "to see the grand babies") and came back the next day. I started trying to put my house back in order from the holidays on Saturday evening, and got up Sunday to play at our 8 am mass, go to the grocery and then came home to take down Christmas decorations and put them away, which took me until the evening. I have to say, I am sore all over and worn out.

Last Sunday we celebrated Epiphany, even though it was technically the day before (thanks, Bishops). I get to mass to set up my music, and someone is trying to figure out the readings and set up the book.  Father is not yet there to clear up the confusion.

They are complaining that they can't find them. I say, "It's Epiphany." (And, I don't play for the mass every Sunday of my life, so I wouldn't know).

She says, "I think it is the 2nd Sunday after Christmas." I said, "Yes, but we are celebrating Epiphany today. The Bishops have decided to celebrate it today instead of yesterday. It's Year B, so look up Epiphany and you will find the readings listed in the missal today."

She finally finds them and some guy who gets to church early every week, and who was obviously eavesdropping, says, "Epiphany is January 6. Today is January 7."  SIGH...

Year B is going to wear me out. I just know it. We already had the debacle of Christmas Eve being the 4th Sunday of Advent, and whether or not Jan. 1 was a holy day of obligation this year. Now I find out Ash Wednesday is on Valentine's Day and Easter is on April Fool's. Go away, Year B.

Simply having a wonderful Christmas time

We just saw our kids off on their way back to Birmingham after a wonderful late Christmas celebration. We had our family celebration over the New Year's weekend, due to Christmas Day being on Monday this year. We decided to make our Christmas the long weekend.

The girls loved their bike and trike, and all the lovely little things they got. Anna gave us a little homemade gift: A wooden plaque that spells out the word "Love" with Rosie's hand print as the O and Vivian's feet prints as the "V." It is so precious! I am looking for a place to hang it up right now. She is such a thoughtful young woman, and makes those precious gifts that mean so much to me as their grandmother. My son truly lucked out when he found our Anna.

During mass this past Sunday, the girls wanted to be with Mimi and Grandpa, who just happen to be the church musicians. At one point, Vivian was very unhappy in her pew, and managed to climb on my lap while I was playing a song. She just sat there leaning her head on my shoulder, and I played on. Rosie went up with the other kids when Father Thi called them to the altar, and gave me the thumbs up to let me know she was ok. She ended up letting me hold her while we sang a song, so she helped us sing at the front of the church. I like that they are involved in the music. They both seem to be fascinated with my piano at home, so I hope they will follow in our footsteps and be singers and players.

We rang in the New Year with Aaron and Anna, and after lunch today, they packed up to go home. Rosie asked to "hold me" (for me to pick her up) and she said, "I'm going to miss you, Mimi!" If only she knew what she does for her Mimi's heart!

Here are some of our weekend pictures!

A special Christmas gift for me

Our sweet girls

We are visiting my brother in South Carolina so we stopped off to spend the night with the kids on the way over here. We went to the girls' day care so that we could see them at pick up time when their parents came to get them. Vivian, our 17-month-old, was a bit confused to see Mimi in her classroom suddenly, and being the independent little girl she is, she let her Grandpa and me give her a hug and quickly got down to run around in the day care and show us how she knew her way around.

We made our way to Rosie's room where she was playing with some kids. Rosie (our 3-year-old) spotted me looking for her through the window and yelled at the top of her little lungs, "THAT"S MY MIMI!!!" We came in and she ran as fast as she could to jump into my arms. She just hugged me and hugged me. She got down to run to her Grandpa and then ran back to hug me again.

She asked if I could ride with her in the car, so I went with her and my son to "The Pancake Store" (Cracker Barrel) where we were eating that evening. After a wonderful time of dinner and fellowship we went home to get the girls ready for bath time and bed time. As we came into the house, I was on the couch when Rosie came over and hugged me. She said, "I'm so glad you are here, Mimi. I'm so glad you came to see me."

Her sweet, innocent little heart just gave me the best Christmas gift I have ever gotten or will probably ever get. Rosie had no idea what she gave me. But I will never forget it. So, Merry Christmas to everyone, and I hope you get as wonderful a gift as I received this year.

Go where you wanna go

We're doing the usual Christmas stuff. It just hit me that we are going to the places we went with Lauren again and again. I got a knot in my stomach just thinking about it right now. How do you escape from this? Move away and never come back? That doesn't sound practical! And what would happen to all our memories? It's the pain that keeps coming back, but it keeps her with me. It hurts me to go to places she went to and it hurts me to go places she's never been. So... I think I'll leave well enough alone and live with these twinges of pain when they come. It's better than never having any memories and never feeling her presence with me. I do feel her when I think of those memories and that is perfectly ok.

I couldn't find any purple flowers

Usually I try to put flowers for the liturgical season on Lauren's grave. I had some fall flowers with leaves and acorns that I put there in the beginning of October and thought, "I'll get some purple flowers for Advent."

Now Advent is pretty short this year for some reason. I thought I had plenty of time, but with folks coming for Thanksgiving, work, church, gym and football season, I let it get away from me.

I live in a small town with limited access to artificial flowers. I thought I was being smart by getting her Christmas flowers when they first came out. No purple flowers in either store I looked in at the beginning of Advent, though.

For some reason, this is bothering me. I know it is not important in the scheme of things, but I feel like I have let her down.

I'll make sure I get her flowers for Lent.

Even Christmas cards can be tough

I used to send a newsy Christmas card every year-full of all the things my kids were doing, and how busy our lives were. I think people enjoyed getting them, or at least I hope they did.

When we lost Lauren, I stopped doing that. I just couldn't do it anymore. I sent a card and tried to put a small note in it to people, but the wind had been knocked out of me, so I am sure my scrawly handwriting was probably not appreciated much.

Aaron grew up, and was gone and Richard and I had an empty nest. Not much to say in a quiet house sometimes. At least not many interesting things to say, in my mind.

I've come to grips with the newsletter thing now, but this year I decided to try something new. I got one of those pre-printed "photo" cards and Anna and Aaron were generous enough to let us put the grand babies on it. Now, over the years, friends and family have sent us pictures with their great-looking grandchildren, and I was always a bit envious, I must say.

So I decided to ask our kids if we could join in the fun. They said yes, so I found a design I liked with a religious theme, and set to work to get a photo of those two jewels. Over Thanksgiving, the girls dressed in the matching Christmas dresses we bought for them; we set them on our knees in front of our fireplace and Anna snapped a few good pics of us.

We are aware the dressing alike phase will pass quickly as they emerge into the little personalities they are destined to be, so we are enjoying this little phase, too. It did both of us good to think all the people on our Christmas card list will get a stunning photo of the girls and a pretty good photo of the old folks this year.

Rosie is getting to the age when Christmas is going to be fun again, and we can't wait to see how she enjoys all the little things about the season and what Santa gives her. We're excited about the gifts we have bought for both girls, and to see their little eyes light up gives me new hope.

For now, enjoy with us, these little blessings....