I'll Be Seeing You...

Christmas seems like a blur now that I try to think back on it. So much has happened in such little time that I'm not quite sure what has happened. The week I came back I unpacked as much as I could, spent time with my aunts going through old pictures of my grandparents and caught up with old friends. On the Saturday and Sunday before Christmas, I made secret Christmas ornaments with my 4 younger cousins. I did the twins on Saturday night with my aunts, uncle, and parents. The girls were crazy, but loved it. On Sunday, I "stole" Archer and Arden and did their's at my house. They were perfect angels and Archer claimed that their hands were "going to stay white forever!" Now their mother might disagree with the perfect angels part, but they truely were. I made snowmen out of their fingers and attached ribbon to the top as a hook. Most of the recipients of the ornaments really loved them. My uncle told me that it was a really great idea I had. This was the final product.

These arn't just five snowmen,

As anyone can see,

I made them with my hand,

Which is part of me.

Now each year when you trim the tree,

You can look back and recall

Christmas of 2011

When my hand was just this small!

Love, Archer

I got this idea from pinterest, of course. But more importantly from http://momscraftyspace.blogspot.com/2010/12/five-little-snowmen.html

I also got a few more decorating ideas from pinterest, so during the time where I should have been doing so many other things (like un-packing) I did this:

Our fridge became a snowman! A hat was later added per request from my amazing cousin Brian.

I just used construction paper for the eyes, nose, mouth, and buttons. I used wrapping paper for his scarf.

I got this idea from: http://www.crazydomestic.com/search/label/christmas

This is our window in the kitchen. I just attached ornaments to the curtain rod.

Now if only we could get rid of those ugly curtains!

I got this idea from a few different places but this is one of them:

http://www.trendytree.com/image-gallery/centerpieces-and-windows

I was asked to make a picture collage for my grandma's memorial service that was held the day after Christmas. I was given a stack of pictures and a form board. My aunts and I ended up going through all of my grandma's pictures, remembering, laughing, and I got to see a few I've never seen before. We also found a list of "Favorites" that my grandma had filled out for her 80th birthday party in August of 2009. It had her favorite food, resturant, TV show, song, etc. So I took all of this home and on Wednesday I sat down and worked from about 6pm until just after midnight. I used the stack of pictures that were given to me, printed out all of grandma's favorites on her favorite color of green paper, and started putting them on. I printed out the lyrics to her favorite song {Somewhere My Love}, and found a some awesome old pictures of my grandparents together. I started cutting the pictures down and then realized that...I needed a whole hell of a lot more pictures! So I went back to the photo albums, and boxes filled with photos to find more. I found some and then more than I've seen before. I even found artifacts that were my grandfather's that my grandma put away after his death in 2002. I finally finished the collage even though I was hoping I could fit a few more onto it. This is what it looks like:

As I was making this picture collage I had realized that I had only bought a few Christmas gifts and needed a few more. It suddenly hit me that Christmas was a few days away and I was screwed. But it all got squared away before to long!

I went to an amazing Ugly Christmas Sweater party last Friday and I was concerned about finding a sweater at Goodwill. Well little did I know that I just had to mention it to my mother and she started throwing sweaters at me.

Now Christmas was bittersweet. It was great to have all of my family members together for Christmas Eve like the old days. But it had it's somber parts where Grandma should have been. We all recieved our final Christmas gift from her. Some cried, most laughed and shared their gifts with the family. My favorite part of the evening was at dinner and my 7 year old cousin went around the table asking everyone what their 1) Favorite number was, 2) Favorite food, and 3) Favorite subject. But as she went to the next person and the next, the list of questions had grown and then changed here and there. It turns out that her, my aunt Pati and I all share the favorite number which is 8. That then turned into a math problem with taking 8 times 3 or something like that but my brain shuts off when it hears a math problem.

Christmas 2011 with my two favorite aunts.

The next few days are kind of a blur and thats not due to the amount of alcohol that was consumed by a certain person. The services for my grandma were as beautiful as she was. My old piano teacher played the music for the services and I finally got to thank her for everything since when I tutored I also had to help the little girl practice her piano lessons. My piano playing still is as interesting as it was back then. We have all been working on cleaning out my grandma's house and yesterday I met my aunt, uncle, Archer, and Arden at grandmas to do more sorting. The children, or course, loved the big empty boxes. Arden carried around an empty Christmas tree box and told me she was carring a dead body. Not quite sure where that came from. We made a "boycave" out of my grandma's walk-in closet. Arden didn't seem to mind that we called it a boycave until later when she just let my aunt and me come in and it was a girls house. While Archer was exploring the "boycave" that was filled with boxes and garbage bags, he popped up and said "I'm sexy and I know it!" I busted out laughing. He then asked me if I know that song. He would never understand how much I love that song and how much my friend Emily and I text each other about when to turn on the radio because it was playing. While we were packing stuff, Archer asked my aunt Linda why we were doing all of this packing. Linda explained that great grandma isn't going to be living there anymore and someone else is going to bring their things and live there now." Archer translated things into toys. My dad brought over his trailer and they started filling it with things for my cousin. I let Arch and Ardie stand in the trailer when it was inbetween loads.

Something was mentioned while we were standing on the ramp and Archer said to us: "Great-grandma isn't going to live here any more and someone else is going to bring their toys and live here". Linda and I had went to drop of trash at the dumpster's the night before and when we came back to grandma's we both agreed that it was surreal to be coming there and she's not there. Linda stated that she should be there and I said the light in the window should be on with grandma looking out at us.

As I was getting ready today for my first ever sushi experience with Heather off in Crest Hill, 'I'll be seeing you' by Jimmy Durante came on my i-pod. It reminded me of my grandparents and my dear aunt that I lost just 2 years ago.

I'll be seeing you
In all the old familiar places
That this heart of mine embraces
All day through.

In that small cafe;
The park across the way;
The children's carousel;
The chestnut trees;
The wishin' well.

I'll be seeing you
In every lovely summer's day;
In every thing that's light and gay.
I'll always think of you that way.

I'll find you
In the morning sun
And when the night is new.
I'll be looking at the moon,
But I'll be seeing you.

I'll be seeing you
In every lovely summer's day;
In every thing that's light and gay.
I'll always think of you that way.

I'll find you
In the morning sun
And when the night is new.
I'll be looking at the moon,
But I'll be seeing you.

Happy New Year to you and yours and may 2012 be the best yet!