12/24/13 Wewahitchka, Florida

Christmas Eve...

In years past, our family has always spent Christmas Eve at my mom's house. 

The house was always decked out with fun little Christmas surprises sprinkled around to delight the kids (and adults).

It would be my family, my sister's family, my brother's family, and of course my parents. 

The cousins would laugh and play and the adults would talk and talk...

Momma would cook for days...making so many different things, just because :).  Hors d'oeuvres, soups, meats, breads, desserts...

This year was painfully different.

The only decorations were the two tiny trees that the kids and I brought in because we couldn't bear the thought of them having nothing sparkly to look at.  I honestly don't think they noticed (understandably), but it made us feel better knowing that they had something.

For dinner, we picked up Chinese food on our way over.  I don't remember if it was good or not...

It was just me, my kids, and my parents this year. 

We gathered around my mom's bed to open the gifts we brought with us.  She smiled as we showed her everything.  I miss that smile...

Momma was tired, she fell asleep and we left to go back home.  One of the towns that is between her house and ours is Wewahitchka...or Wewa, as it is called by everyone around here.  When we were passing through Wewa, we spotted the lake and pulled over to "breathe" for a while before going the rest of the way home.  It was getting close to sunset and the light on the water, the live oak trees, the spanish moss...was just the beautiful breath we were needing.  

We lingered under the ancient trees until the earth felt like it was once again beneath our feet.

The kids took a whirl on the playground equipment.  It was good to see them smiling :).

Then we went home.

It's the little things, ya'll.  All those years...I thought things would always be the way they had always been and in a blink -it was simply gone.  She was gone.

***I know that I am skipping quite a few days as I am writing these...  There is a reason for that.  Those days were filled with details that I am not going to share, probably ever.  They are things that honestly, I would rather just forget...  I feel like the parts that I am sharing give a good idea of our past several months.  That's my goal...a simple remembrance of where we've walked.  ...just thought I should say something about that...